Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate The even-toed ungulates form the mammal order Artiodactyla , the group that contains the pigs, peccaries, hippopotami, camels, chevrotains (mouse deer), deer, giraffes, pronghorn, antelopes, sheep, goats, and cattle. They are ungulates whose weight is borne about equally by the third and fourth toes, rather than mostly or entirely by the third as species found all over the world in places such as Africa, Asia and North America. The term refers to a ‘miscellaneous’ group within the family encompassing the old-world species which are not cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison,or goats. A group of antelope is called a herd Herd refers to a social grouping of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic, and also to the form of collective animal behavior associated with this or as a verb, to herd, to its control by another species such as humans or dogs.^[1]

The pronghorn antelope The Pronghorn , is a species of artiodactyl mammal native to interior western and central North America. Though not a true antelope, it is often known colloquially as the Prong Buck, Pronghorn Antelope or simply Antelope , as it closely resembles the true antelopes of the Old World and fills a similar ecological niche due to convergent evolution of North America is not a member of the family Bovidae A bovid is any of almost 140 species of cloven-hoofed mammals belonging to the family Bovidae. The family is widespread, being native to Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, and diverse: members include bison, African buffalo, water buffalo, antelopes, gazelles, sheep, goats, muskoxen, and domestic cattle, but the family Antilocapridae Antilocapridae is a family of artiodactyls endemic to North America. Their closest extant relatives are the giraffids. Only one species, the pronghorn , is living today; all other members of the family are extinct. The living pronghorn is a small ruminant mammal resembling an antelope. It bears small, forked horns and not an antelope. No antelope species are native to the Americas. True antelope have horns which are unbranched and never shed, while Pronghorns have branching horns, and shed annually.

Etymology

The English word "antelope" first appears in 1417 and is derived from the Old French Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century. It is a direct descendent of Old Gallo-Romance. It was then known as the langue d'oïl to distinguish it from the langue d'oc (Occitan language, antelop, itself derived from Medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors, medieval Latin should not be confused with ant(h)alopus, which in turn comes from the Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 A.D. and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe. From the seventh century onwards, Greek was the only language of word anthólops, first attested in Eustathius of Antioch Eustathius of Antioch, sometimes surnamed the Great, was a bishop and patriarch of Antioch in the 4th century (c.336), according to whom it was a fabulous animal "haunting the banks of the Euphrates, very savage, hard to catch and having long saw-like horns capable of cutting down trees".^[2] It perhaps derives from Greek anthos (flower) and ops (eye), perhaps meaning "beautiful eye" or alluding to the animals long eyelashes; however this may be a later folk etymology Folk etymology, in its basic sense, refers to popularly held beliefs about the origins of specific words, especially where these originate in "common-sense" assumptions rather than serious research (compare folk science, folk psychology etc.). In historical linguistics, the term is most often used in a more technical sense, to refer to a. The word talopus and calopus, from Latin, came to be used in heraldry Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of devising, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander". The word, in its most general sense, encompasses all matters relating to. In 1607 it was first used for living, cervine animal.

Species

There are 91 species, most of which are native to Africa, in about 30 genera. The classification of tribes or subfamilies within Bovidae A bovid is any of almost 140 species of cloven-hoofed mammals belonging to the family Bovidae. The family is widespread, being native to Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, and diverse: members include bison, African buffalo, water buffalo, antelopes, gazelles, sheep, goats, muskoxen, and domestic cattle is still a matter of debate, with several alternative systems proposed.

Antelope are not a cladistic Cladistics is a method of classifying species of organisms into groups called clades, which consist of 1) all the descendants of an ancestral organism and 2) the ancestor itself. For example, birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles, and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor form a clade. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a or taxonomically defined group. The term is used loosely to describe all members of the family Bovidae which do not fall under the category of sheep Domestic sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Numbering a little over 1 billion, domestic sheep are the most, cattle Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius. Cattle are raised as livestock for meat (beef and veal), as dairy animals for milk and other dairy products,, or goat The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of goat. Usually all species of the Alcelaphinae The subfamily Alcelaphinae contains Wildebeest, Hartebeest, Bonteboks and several similar species. All in all it contains 10 species in 4 genera, although Beatragus is sometimes considered a subgenus of Damaliscus, and Sigmoceros for the Lichtenstein's Hartebeest., Antilopinae Antilopinae is a subfamily of Bovidae. The gazelles, blackbucks, springboks, gerenuks, dibatags and Central Asian gazelles are often referred to as "True Antelopes" and are usually the sole representatives of the Antilopinae. "True Antelopes" occur in much of Africa and Asia with the highest concentration of species occurring, Hippotraginae A grazing antelope is any of the species of antelope that make up the subfamily Hippotraginae in the family Bovidae, which also includes sheep, goats, and cattle, Reduncinae The subfamily Reduncinae is composed 8 species of antelope all of which dwell in marshes, floodplains or other well-watered areas, including the waterbucks and reedbucks. These antelopes first appeared in fossil record 7.4 million years ago in Eurasia and 6.6 mya in Africa, Cephalophinae A duiker is any of about 19 small to medium-sized antelope species from the subfamily Cephalophinae native to Sub-Saharan Africa, many Bovinae The biological subfamily Bovinae includes a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large sized ungulates, including domestic cattle, the bison, African buffalo, the water buffalo, the yak, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The evolutionary relationship between the members of the group is obscure, and their classification into loose, the Grey Rhebok The Grey Rhebok or Grey Rhebuck is a species of antelope endemic to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland and the Impala An impala is a medium-sized African antelope. The name impala comes from the Zulu language meaning "gazelle". They are found in savannas and thick bushveld in Kenya, Tanzania, Swaziland, Mozambique, northern Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, southern Angola, northeastern South Africa and Uganda. Impalas can be found in numbers of up are called antelopes.

Distribution and habitat

Most species of antelope are native to Africa, but some originate in Asia as well. The Arabian peninsula is home to the Arabian Oryx The Arabian Oryx (or White Oryx) is a medium sized antelope with a distinct shoulder hump, long straight horns, and a tufted tail. It is a bovid, and the smallest member of Oryx genus, native to desert and steppe areas of the Arabian peninsula. The Arabian Oryx was extinct in the wild by the early 1970s, but was saved in zoos and private preserves and Dorcas gazelle The Dorcas Gazelle غزال, also known as the Ariel Gazelle, is a small and common gazelle. The Dorcas Gazelle stands approximately 53 to 65 cm (21 to 25,5 inches) tall. Dorcas gazelle have a head and body length of 2.7 to 3.6 ft (80 to 110 cm) and weight of 27 to 55 lb (12 to 25 kg). The numerous subspecies of the Dorcas Gazelle survive on. India is home to the Nilgai Nilgai have thin legs and a robust body that slopes down from the shoulder. Their long, narrow heads are topped by two small conical horns which are straight and tilted slightly forward. Horns on trophy males are normally 21.6-25.4 centimeters . They have an erectile mane on the back of the neck and a tubular shaped "hair pennant" on the, Chinkara The Chinkara is a species of gazelle found in south Asia. It lives in grasslands and desert areas in India, Bangladesh and parts of Iran and Pakistan. It is also known as the Indian Gazelle (Gazella gazella bennetti) and Blackbuck Blackbuck , Krishna Mrigam is a species of antelope found mainly in India, and also in some parts of southern Nepal, and Pakistan, though it has also been introduced in Texas and Argentina. It is one of the fastest of all terrestrial animals reaching to speeds of up to 80 km/hr and is one of the few antelopes where males and females have, while Russia and Southeast Asia have the Four-horned Antelope The Four-horned Antelope also known as the chousingha is an antelope found in open forest in South Asia. Its primary distribution is in India extending South of the Gangetic plains down till the state of Tamilnadu. Orissa constitutes the Eastern boundary of its distribution whereas the fragmented population at Gir is its westernmost distribution, Tibetan antelope Tibetan antelope or Chiru (Chinese 藏羚羊) – the sole species in the genus Pantholops, is a medium-sized bovid which is about 80 centimetres (2.6 ft) in height at the shouder. It is native to the Tibetan plateau including China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai province, and Xinjiang province; India near Ladakh, formerly western Nepal. The, and Saiga antelope The saiga is an antelope which originally inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe zone from the foothils of the Carpathians and Caucasus into Dzungaria and Mongolia. They also lived in North America during the Pleistocene. Today they are found only in a few areas in Kalmykia (Russia), Kazakhstan, and western Mongolia.

Many species of antelope have been imported to other parts of the world, especially the United States, for exotic game hunting. Due to the spectacular leaping and evasive skills of some species, escaped individuals are not unheard of. Texas Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States, while San Antonio is the second largest in the state and seventh largest in the United States. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and sixth largest United States metropolitan areas, respectively. Other major cities include El Paso and Austin—the in particular has high numbers of gaming ranches, as well as habitat and climate that are very hospitable to African plains antelope species. As such, wild populations of Blackbuck Antelope Blackbuck , Krishna Mrigam is a species of antelope found mainly in India, and also in some parts of southern Nepal, and Pakistan, though it has also been introduced in Texas and Argentina. It is one of the fastest of all terrestrial animals reaching to speeds of up to 80 km/hr and is one of the few antelopes where males and females have, Gemsbok The gemsbok or gemsbuck is a large African antelope, of the Oryx genus. The name is derived from the Dutch name of the male chamois, gemsbok. Although there are some superficial similarities in appearance (especially in the colour of the face area), the chamois and the oryx are not closely related, and Nilgai Nilgai have thin legs and a robust body that slopes down from the shoulder. Their long, narrow heads are topped by two small conical horns which are straight and tilted slightly forward. Horns on trophy males are normally 21.6-25.4 centimeters . They have an erectile mane on the back of the neck and a tubular shaped "hair pennant" on the have established in Texas, though they are not native to the area^[3].

Antelope exist in a wide range of habitats. Numerically, most exist in the African savannahs. However, there are many species of more secluded forest antelope, as well as the extreme-cold living saiga The Saiga is an antelope which originally inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe zone from the foothils of the Carpathians and Caucasus into Dzungaria and Mongolia. Today they are found only in a few areas in Kalmykia (Russia), Kazakhstan, and western Mongolia, desert adapted Arabian oryx The Arabian Oryx (or White Oryx) is a medium sized antelope with a distinct shoulder hump, long straight horns, and a tufted tail. It is a bovid, and the smallest member of Oryx genus, native to desert and steppe areas of the Arabian peninsula. The Arabian Oryx was extinct in the wild by the early 1970s, but was saved in zoos and private preserves, the rocky kopje A monadnock or inselberg is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. The term "monadnock" is usually used in the United States, whereas "inselberg" is the more common international term. In southern and southern-central Africa, a-living klipspringer The Klipspringer , Oreotragus oreotragus, also known colloquially as a mvundla (from Xhosa "umvundla", meaning "rabbit"), is a small African antelope that lives from the Cape of Good Hope all the way up East Africa and into Ethiopia and semi-aquatic sitatunga The sitatunga or marshbuck is a swamp-dwelling antelope found throughout Central Africa, centering on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and parts of Southern Sudan as well as in Botswana, Zambia, Gabon, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.^[4]

Species of forest, woodland or bush tend to be sedentary, but many of the plains species undertake huge migrations. These migrations enable grass-eating species to follow the rains and therefore their food supply. The gnus The wildebeest , also called the gnu (pronounced /ˈnuː/ noo or /ˈnjuː/ nyoo), is an antelope of the genus Connochaetes. It is a hooved (ungulate) mammal. Wildebeest is Dutch for "wild beast" or "wild cow" in Afrikaans (bees = cow), while Connochaetes derives from the Greek words konnos ("beard") and khaite (" and gazelles A gazelle is any of many antelope species currently or formerly in the genus Gazella. Six species are included in two genera which were formerly considered subgenera. The genus Procapra has also been considered a subgenus of Gazella, and its members are also referred to as gazelles; however they are not dealt with in this article of East Africa East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa: perform some of the most impressive mass migratory circuits of all mammals.^[5]

Morphology

All bovids have even-toed hooves A hoof is the tip of a toe of an ungulate mammal, strengthened by a thick horny covering. The hoof consists of a hard or rubbery sole, and a hard wall formed by a thick nail rolled around the tip of the toe. The weight of the animal is normally borne by both the sole and the edge of the hoof wall. Hooves grow continuously, and are constantly worn, horizontal pupils, ruminating guts, and (in at least the males) bony horns. These basic characteristics, however, mask huge differences in appearance between antelopes, cattle, goats and sheep, and among the antelopes themselves.^[6] For example, a male Common Eland The Common Eland , also known as the Southern Eland or Eland antelope, is a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa can measure 178 cm at the shoulder and weigh almost 950 kg, whereas an adult Royal Antelope The Royal Antelope is a West African antelope, only 25–30 cm (10–12 inches) tall and weighing only 3.2–3.6 kg (9–10 lb) — it is the smallest of all antelopes. Their calves are small enough to fit into the average person's open hand. It is light brown in colour, with a paler underbelly and slightly darker heads and flanks. The male has may stand only 24 cm at the shoulder and weigh a mere 1.5 kg.

Not surprisingly for animals with long, slender yet powerful legs, many antelopes have long strides and can run fast. Some (e.g. Klipspringer The Klipspringer , Oreotragus oreotragus, also known colloquially as a mvundla (from Xhosa "umvundla", meaning "rabbit"), is a small African antelope that lives from the Cape of Good Hope all the way up East Africa and into Ethiopia) are also adapted to climbing in rock kopjes. Both Dibatags The dibatag , or Clarke's gazelle, is an antelope found in the sandy grasslands of Ethiopia and Somalia. Not a true gazelle, it is similarly marked, with a long, furry black tail which is raised in flight. This gave rise to its name, which means "erect tail" in Somali and Gerenuks The Gerenuk , also known as the Waller's Gazelle, is a long-necked species of antelope found in dry bushy scrub and steppe in East Africa. The word Gerenuk comes from the Somali language, meaning “giraffe-necked”, and leads to another common name, the Giraffe-necked Antelope. It is the only member of the genus Litocranius habitually stand on their two hind legs to reach acacia and other tree foliage. Different antelope have different body types which can affect movement. Duikers are short, bush-dwelling antelope that can pick through dense foliage and dive into the shadows rapidly. Gazelles and Springbok are known for their speed and leaping abilities. Even larger antelope, such as Nilgai, Elands, and Kudus, are capable of jumping 8 feet or greater, although their running speed is restricted by their greater mass.

Antelopes have a wide variety of coverings, through most have a dense coat of short fur. In most species, the coat (pelage) is some variation of a brown colour (or several shades of brown); often with white or pale under-bodies. Exceptions include the zebra-marked Zebra Duiker, the grey, black and white Jentink's Duiker and the Black Lechwe. Most of the "spiral-horned" antelopes have pale vertical stripes on their backs. Many desert and sub-desert species are particularly pale, some almost silvery or whitish (e.g. Arabian Oryx); the Beisa and Southern Oryxes have gray and black pelage with vivid black-and-white faces. Common features of various gazelles are a white rump, which flashes a warning to others when they run from danger, and a dark stripe mid-body (the latter feature is also shared by the Springbok and Beira). The Springbok also has a pouch of white brushlike hairs running along its back, which opens up when the animal senses danger, causing the dorsal hairs to stand on end.

Antelopes are ruminants, and thus have well-developed molar teeth, which grind cud (food balls stored in the stomach) into a pulp for further digestion. They have no upper incisors, but rather a hard upper gum pad, against which their lower incisors bite to tear grass stems and leaves.

Like many other herbivores, antelopes rely on keen senses to avoid predators. Their eyes are placed on the sides of their heads, giving them a broad radius of vision with minimal binocular vision. The fact that most species have their pupils elongated horizontally also helps in this respect. Acute senses of smell and hearing, give antelope the ability to perceive danger at night out in the open (when predators are often on the prowl). These same senses play an important role in contact between individuals of the same species: markings on head, ears, legs and rumps are used in such communication—many species "flash" such markings, as well as their tails; vocal communications include loud barks, whistles, "moos" and trumpeting; many species also use scent marking to define their territories or simply to maintain contact with their relatives and neighbors.

Many antelope are sexually dimorphic. In most species, both sexes have horns, but those of males tend to be larger. There is a tendency for males to be larger than the females; however, exceptions in which the females tend to be heavier than the males include the Bush Duiker, Dwarf Antelope, Cape Grysbok and Oribi, all rather small species. A number of species have hornless females (e.g. Sitatunga, Red Lechwe, and Suni). In some species, the males and females have different coloured pelage (e.g. Blackbuck and Nyala).

Size and shape of horns varies immensely. Those of the duikers and dwarf antelopes tend to be simple "spikes", but differ in the angle to the head from backward curved and backward pointing (e.g. Yellow-backed Duiker) to straight and upright (e.g. Steenbok). Other groups have twisted (e.g. Common Eland), spiral (e.g. Greater Kudu), "recurved" (e.g. the reedbucks), lyrate (e.g. Impala), or long, curved (e.g. the oryxes) horns. Horns are not shed and are not made of bone, which distinguishes them from antlers.^[7]

Horns are efficient weapons and tend to be better developed in those species where males fight over females (large herd antelope) than in solitary or lekking species. With male-male competition for mates, horns are clashed in combat. It is much more common for males to use their horns against each other than against another species. The boss of the horns is typically arranged in such a way that two antelope striking at each other's horns cannot crack each other's skulls, making a fight via horn more ritualized than dangerous. Many species have ridges in their horns for at least 2/3 the length of their horns, but these ridges are not a direct indicator of age.

Behavior

Mating strategies

Antelope are often classified by their reproductive behavior.

Small antelope, such as dik-diks, tend to be monogamous. They live in a forest environment with patchy resources, and a male is unable to monopolize more than one female due to this sparse distribution. Larger forest species often form very small herds of 2-4 females and 1 male.

Some species such as lechwe pursue a lek breeding system. In this, the males gather on a lekking ground and compete for a small territory, while the females appraise males and choose one with whom to mate.

Large grazing antelope, such as impala or wildebeest form large herds made up of many females and a single breeding male, which excludes all other males, often by combat.

Defense

Antelope pursue a number of defense strategies, often dictated by their morphology.

Large antelope that gather in large herds, such as wildebeest or cape buffalo rely on numbers and running speed for protection. In some species, adults will circle around the offspring, protecting them from predators when threatened. Many forest antelope rely on cryptic coloring and good hearing to avoid predators. Forest antelope often have very large ears and a dark or striped coloration. Small antelope, especially duikers, evade predation by jumping into dense bush where the predator cannot pursue^[8]. Springboks use a behavior known as stotting to confuse predators.

Open grassland species have nowhere to hide from predators so they tend to be fast runners. They are agile and have good endurance - these are advantages when pursued by sprint-dependent predators like cheetah, which are the fastest of land animals but tire quickly. Reaction distances vary with predator species and predator behaviour. For example, gazelles may not flee from a lion until it is closer than 200 m (650 ft)—lions hunt as a pride or by surprise, usually by stalking, one that can be seen clearly is unlikely to attack. However, sprint-dependent cheetahs will cause gazelles to flee at a range of over 800 m (0.5 mile).^[9]

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