Antelope

Range:

Africa, Asia, and Middle East

Habitat:

Savanna, woodlands, marshes and swamps, rain forests, steppes, and desert

What IS an antelope?

The word antelope has been used to describe a wide variety of horned mammals in the Family Bovidae. There are even some species within the Bovidae family that are known as goat-antelope! For the purposes of this fact sheet, we’ll focus on some of the species in the Antilopinae subfamily, animals commonly called antelope as well as those such as impalas, gazelles, and gnu or wildebeest. Be sure to see Goats and Sheep and Nile Lechwee to read about other Antilopinae subfamily members.

All antelope have horns; in some species they are only found on the males, whereas in others, such as

gazelles, both males and females have them. The horns are made of a bony core encased in a hard material made largely of keratin (the same substance our fingernails are made of!). Horns are permanently attached, unlike a deer’s antlers, which are shed each year.

Some horns, like those of the addax and blackbuck, twist in interesting spirals; others are ridged or corrugated, like those of the impala and the sable antelope; still others grow in wide curves with a sharp point on the end, like those of the gnu.