Bontebok
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| Bontebok Conservation status: Vulnerable | ||||||||||||||||
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| Damaliscus pygargus Pallas, 1767 |
The Bontebok (Damaliscus pygargus also the Blesbok) is a highveld antelope found in South Africa and Lesotho. The Bontebok has two subspecies; the Bontebok and the Blesbok.
The Bontebok stands 80 to 100 centimetres at the shoulder and weighs 50 to 90 kilograms. The Bontebok is a chocolate brown colour, with a white underside and a white stripe from the forehead to the tip of the nose, although there is a brown stripe across the white near the eyes in most Blesbok. The horns of Bontebok are lyre-shaped and clearly ringed they are found in both sexes and can reach a length of half a metre.
Bontebok live in highveld where they eat short grasses. They are diurnal, though they rest during the heat of the day. Herds contain only males, only females or are mixed and do not exceed forty animals for Bonteboks or seventy for Blesboks.
Bontebok are not good jumpers but they are very good at crawling under things. Mature males form territories and face down other males in displays and occasionally combat.
Bontebok were killed as pests and were reduced to seventeen animals in the wild but have recovered. Blesbok are extinct in their natural habitat but they have increased in population to the point where they are now farmed.