Antelope of Southern Africa
I love antelope, especially the variety of sizes, markings, and horns that we see while roaming southern Africa.
I’ll keep this post updated with representative photos of the species I encounter. These are mostly chronologically organized based on when I took the photo.
Cape bushbuck female at Crocodile Bridge / Kruger
It seems like every bushbuck I encounter is a camp resident and domesticated. We had “bucky” the bushbuck who hung out with us at camp in Ivory Wilderness in 2024, and this pretty lady who was grazing in a staff house backyard at Crocodile Bridge in Kruger Park, South Africa. These are smallish, about the size of a 1-2 year old white-tailed deer. Females don’t have horns.
Waterbuck male in southern Kruger
Waterbuck are majestic and fuzzy, and are often identified from a distance by the circle around their butts.
Waterbuck female in southern Kruger
Waterbuck females are no less cuddly looking and lack the awesome horns. The defassa waterbuck, found farther north in sub-Saharan Africa, has a solid white rump patch rather than the ring seen on common waterbuck.
Around Pafuri and Baobob Hill House we see lots of nyala, with the striking feature being the big difference between the male and female. In fact, nyala display the greatest sexual dimorphism among the spiral-horned antelopes.
Nyala male at Baobob Hill House, Pafuri
Check out this male who wandered up into our pool area at the Hill House. I was filming birds in the bird bath when he strolled up right behind me and proceeded to drink all the bath water. I opted to stay still and stay put while he walked right by me. Not everyone in the group approved of my choice.
I was spoiled on my first trip to Africa two years ago as we started the trip in Pafuri where saw eland frequently. We’ve seen them elsewhere, but not often, and they are dramatic to see. Especially when around smaller antelope like impala. Both sexes have horns.
Klipspringer pair in Gonarezhou
Klipspringers are amazing and elusive! Unlike many large herding antelope (impala, wildebeest, etc.), they tend to live in pairs and form long-term bonds. If you encounter them up close, they will dash and hide through the rocky terrain that they prefer, making it hard to get close-up photos. They walk around on the rocks Michael Jackson style, on the tips of their blunt hooves.
Steenbok with zebra in Tuli Block / Tswehe
The most ubiquitous small antelope for us have been the steenbok, which we have seen just about every game drive we’ve been on from South Africa to Zimbabwe to Botswana to Namibia. Usually we see a pair together, and you have to search for the tiny spiky horns to identify the male. I have better steenbok photos than the one I’m sharing here, but I love how the zebra behind this cute lady shows how small and delicate they are.
Sable are one of the big and rare antelope that we seek out. Because the females have horns too, it isn’t easy to tell when looking at an individual if it is male or female. We only found a small group, and only once during the entire trip so far. Unlikely to see more as we’ve left their range.
Impala buck in Chobe / Savuti
Impala are just about everywhere in southern Africa, with the only region they’ve been absent so far being the Central Kalahari where the springbok took their place.
Tsessebe in Chobe / Savuti
Another rare-to-us antelope, the tsessebe is a horse-like antelope that is large and fast.
Greater kudu male in Moremi
We see lots of kudu but still stop and stare when we encounter a grizzly old male with a long beard.
Greater Kudu female in CKGR
Males and females both have the vertical white stripes, and the females lack horns.
Gemsbok with young in CKGR
Love these guys and gals, and what you see here is most likely two adult females with a new calf. They are in the oryx genus and highly adapted to the dry deserts they inhabit.
Muddy blue wildebeest in CKGR
Yes, wildebeest are antelope and (to me at least) the most distinctive of the group. We’ve seen a few herds on this trip, mostly recently a large one in the Kalahari, but most of our sightings are singles or a few mixed with a herd of zebra.
Red hartebeest crossing road in CKGR
We saw many of these (finally!) red hartebeest on the western edge of the Central Kalahari when we transitioned to scrubby forest away from the desert grassy pans that were dominated by gemsbok and springbok. Another horse-like antelope, these are big and easy to confuse with the tsessebe.
Common duiker male near Etosha National Park, Namibia
I’ve seen duikers before but usually their butts as they go scurrying away into the bush. At our camp restaurant on the east side of Etosha National Park we hung out for a few hours at the waterhole looking for birds to come to the water. Then we had a duiker female followed by a male show up and give us ample opportunity for good photos. Identification took us a while as these seemed too big to be duikers; nearly impala sized. The horns and the cap and face confirmed the ID for us.
Damara dik-dik female near Etosha NP, Namibia
In our camp at the same campground we had this little lady come to us and feed in the brush near our vehicle. She was only 15” tall and had the identifiable pointed snout.
We started seeing black-faced impala in Etosha. Impala are a constant sighting for us, so it was nice to see this subspecies.
A visit to Bontebok National Park almost guaranteed we would see this new-to-us antelope. Similar to the red hartebeest with the horse-like appearance. Notice the continuous white strip on the face that doesn’t break going to the forehead.
The blesbok is related to the bontebok and they will hybridize. The body color is usually a bit lighter, and notice how the white stripe breaks on the face.
Identifying these guys was tough as they were running away from us and therefore hard to see specifics on the horns. After much review we settled on mountain reedbuck. This was in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains.
Black wildebeest and blesbok at sunset
Our last antelope of the trip was the beautiful black wildebeest with its golden mane and distinctive white tail.
