Antelope
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Genera
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| Aepyceros Alcelaphus Antidorcas Antilope Cephalophus Connochaetes Damaliscus Gazella Hippotragus Kobus Madoqua Neotragus Oreotragus Oryx Ourebia Pantholops Procapra Sylvicapra Taurotragus Tragelaphus and others |
The antelope are a group of herbivorous African or Asian animals of the family Bovidae, distinguished by a pair of hollow horns on their heads. These animals are spread relatively evenly throughout the various subfamilies of Bovidae and many are more closely related to cows or goats than each other. There are many different species of antelope, ranging in size from the tiny Royal Antelope to the Giant Eland. They typically have a light and elegant figure, slender, graceful limbs, small cloven hoofs, and a short tail. Antelope have powerful hindquarters and when startled they run with a peculiar bounding stride that makes them look as though they are bouncing over the terrain like a giant rabbit. Some species of antelope can reach speeds of 60 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour), making them among the fastest of land animals.
Physical Description
Antelopes differ from eachother almost as much as they differ from other members of the cattle, goat, and sheep family. The common eland towers over most breeds of domestic cattle and can be 300 times heavier than the royal antelope. In many species, the males are usually larger than the females. In several species, such as the Asian black buck, males and females also differ in colour.
Antelopes bear a dense coat with short fur. Most antelopes have fawn or brown-colored fur so they can camoflouge while eating. Yet there are some exceptions including the rare zebra duiker which has dark vertical stripes, and the gemsbok which has gray and black fur and a vivid black-and-white face. A common feature of the gazelle is a a white rump, which flashes a warning to others when they run from danger. One species of gazelle, the springbok, also has a pouch of white brushlike airs running along its back. When a springbok senses danger, its puch opens up, and the hairs stand on end.
All antelopes have long, slender legs and powerful muscles where the upper legs meet the antelopes body that provide leverage, increasing leg stride and speed. Though antelopes are good jumpers, they are not good climbers. But a few do display good balance, such as the klipspringer, which stands on the tips of its hooves. The gerenuk, another African species, is one of the few antelopes that habitually stands on its back legs.
Antelopes are ruminants. Like other ruminants, such as cattle and shreep, antelopes have well-developed cheek teeth or molars, which grind cud into a pulp. They have no upper incisors, and in order to tear grass stems and leaves, their lower incisors press against an upper hard gum pad whey they bite.
Antelopes often rely on their keen senses to avoid predators. Their eyes facev sideways, and their pupils are elongated horizontally, giving them a broad view of danger from both the back and front. Their hearing and sense of smell are also acute, giving the antelope the ability to sense danger while out in the open where predators often prowl after dark.
Whereas in deer males are the only ones who grow antlers, in antelopes both sexes grow horns. Though the males horns are generally larger. The dik-dik and klipspringer, two species of antelope that only have one mate, have horns that are little more than spikes. In species where the males compete to mate with several females, horns may grow as long as 1.5 m (5 ft). Despite their large size, antelope horns are hollow and lightweight. Antelope horns are usually always slightly curved, although some species, such as the black buck, they are shaped like a pair of corkscrews, spiraling out in opposite directions.
In the wild, Antelope life spans are hard to determine, and most known figures relate only to those in captivity. Captive gnus, for example, have lived to be over 20, while impalas have lived into their late teens. But in the wild, where predators roam, antelopes rarely live to their teens.
Behaviour
Unlike carnivores and primates, Antelopes have not been noted for high intelligence. This is partly because as herbivores, their food cannot run away meaning they don't have to be quick-thinking and resourceful to track it down. In most open habitats, Antelopes run a high risk of predation. They use several kinds of defensive strategy to survive which includesv living in herds. Living in herds, there are many eyes are ears to keep watch for danger. Herd living also gives indivudual antelopes a chance to get away as the predator has many targets to choose from. When danger threatens, antelopes behave in an assortment of characteristic ways. Many species, especially the gazelle, walk toward hostile enemies, such as lions or cheetahs, when they are first seen. Though this behaviour sounds reckless, it actually warns the herd of impending danger and allows them to asses the threat at hand. If the incoming animals are non-hostile, the gazelles of the herd keep them under constant survelliance, ready to run at any time.
The decision to begin fleeing is largely based on the type of predator and its distance from the herd. Usually, gazelles will permit lions to come 200 m (650 ft) within before fleeing. This is because they instinctively know that a hunting lion prefers to stay hidden while stalking its prey, meaning a visible lion is unlikely to attack. Cheetahs, who are superb sprintersm, pose a more dangerous threat. Gazelles will often begin to run when cheetahs are over 800 m (0.5 mi) away.
Antelopes communicate with each other using a varying array of sounds. For example, Dik-diks whistle when alarmed warning other animals of danger which makes dik-diks unpopular with hunters. Generally, sight is a much more form of communication than sound for antelopes. Their mood is indicated by their posture and movement. When excited or alarmed, most medium-sized species of antelopes bounce up in down on all four legs, keeping them stretched out straight. Known as pronking or stotting, this behaviour acts as an alarming display. Some biologists theorize that stotting also gives a message to predators, showing that individual antelopes are fit and alert, therefore not worth pursuing.
Antelopes also use scent signals to communicate and these signals can linger for many days. Antelopes that live in herds have special glands in their hoofs that leave a scented record of their movement, therefore, if an antelope was accidentally seperated from their herd, they would be able to follow the scent tracks back.
Species
There are about 90 species of antelope in about 30 genera of which about 15 are endangered. These include:
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Black Buck Antelope have been imported into the United States, primarily for the purpose of "exotic game hunts", common in Texas. There are no true antelope native to the Americas. The Pronghorn Antelope of the Great Plains belongs to family Antilocapridae. The Mongolian Gazelle (Procapra gutturosa), sometimes classified as an antelope, can run with a speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). Suni are small antelope that live in south-eastern Africa. They stand between 12-17 inches high at the shoulder. They are very similar to the dik-dik in size, shape, and colour but have many smaller differences.
Believe it or not, there is no such thing as a Sahara Antelope. This is a common misconception.
Antelope are not a cladistic group in and of themselves, but rather are a sort of miscilaneous group. The term is used loosly to describe all members of the family Bovidae who do not fall under the category of Sheep, Cattle, or Goat. Native antelope can be found in Asia, India, and Africa.
Hybrid Antelope
A wide variety of Antelope hybrids have been recorded in zoos. This is due to a lack of more appropriate mates in enclosures shared with other species or with misidentification of species. The ease of hybridization shows how closely related some antelope species are. It is probably that some so-called species are actually variant populations of the same species and are prevented from hybridization in the wild by behavioural or geographical differences.
- A mating between a male Eland and a female Kudu produced a sterile male hybrid that resembled the Eland.
- Blue Wildebeest produce fertile hybrids with the smaller Black Wildebeest. This led to an entire herd of 180 "genetically contaminated" Black Wildebeest being destroyed in a wildlife conservation park (species purity is a human concept, nature is far more flexible).
- In the early 1900s the London Zoological Society hybridized several antelope species including: the water-bucks Kobus ellipsiprymnus and Kobus unctuosus, and the Selouss antelope Limnotragus seloussi with Limnotragus gratus.
Listed antelope hybrids include:
- Bongo/Sitatunga
- Lesser Kudu/Sitatunga
- Eland/Greater Kudu
- Blue Duiker/Maxwell's Duiker
- Bay Duiker/Red-flanked Duiker
- Bay Duiker/ Zebra Duiker
- Black Duiker/Kaffir Duiker
- Cape Hartebeest/Blesbok
- Bontebok/Blesbok
- Black Wildebeest/Blue Wildebeest
- Common Waterbuck/Defassa Waterbuck
- Defassa Waterbuck/Nile Lechwe
- Defassa Waterbuck/Kob
- Nile Lechwe/Kob
- Kafue Lechwe/Ellipsen Waterbuck
- Red-fronted Gazelle/Thomson's Gazelle
- Beisa Oryx/Fringe-eared Oryx
- Grant's Gazelle/Thomson's Gazelle
- Beisa Oryx/Gemsbok
- Arabian Oryx/Scimitar-horned Oryx
- Thomson's Gazelle/Roosevelt's Gazelle
- Slender-horned Gazelle/Persian Goitered Gazelle
- Persian Gazelle/Blackbuck
- Cuvier's Gazelle/Slender-horned Gazelle
Cultural aspects
The antelope's horn is prized for medicinal and magical powers in many places. In the Congo, it is thought to confine spirits. Christian iconography sometimes uses the antelope's two horns as a symbol of the two spiritual weapons that Christians possess: the Old Testament and the New Testament. Their ability to run swiftly has also led to their association with the wind, such as in the Rig Veda, as the steeds of the Maruts and the wind god Vaya.