Bontebok

Physical features

• Bontebok are antelopes about three feet high at the shoulder and measure four to five feet (up to 1.5 meters) in length.

• Their coat is mostly a rich brown color with a purplish iridescent luster. Their tails, bellies, and feet are white.

• Bontebok have a striking white blaze running down the center of their face, resembling a knight's helmet.

• Both sexes develop angular, ringed horns that reach up to 18 inches in length. Female horns are slightly more slender than male horns.

• They weigh between 120-175 pounds (54-80 kgs). Males are slightly heavier than females.

Diet: Herbivore

• Wild – Short grasses; recently burnt veld, fynbos, and strandveld habitats (shrubland biomes of the Cape Floristic Region); almost exclusively grazers

• They can go several days without water but will drink at least once a day when water is available.

• Zoo – Commercially prepared herbivore diet; Bermuda hay

Reproduction

• Breeding in the wild is seasonal. Mating occurs between January and April. After a gestation of 7-8 months, a single calf is born. The main calving season is September-December.

• Lambs weigh about 15 pounds (almost 7 kilograms) and are a pale brown color at birth. They stand up and are mobile within an hour or so after being born.

• Lambs are weaned after four or five months. The mother will typically have another lamb the next year.

• Males voluntarily leave their family groups at 12-15 months of age and join a bachelor herd, but females will remain with their mother's herd.

• Both sexes reach sexual maturity around 2 years of age, but they do not breed for another year or more. Females may begin breeding at 3 years of age, while males do not breed until they are 4 or 5 years old.

Interpretive Information

• Bontebok are one of the rarest antelope species in South Africa. At one time, the population numbered as few as 17 individuals. Bontebok National Park was established in 1931 and moved to a new location about 25 years later.

• Their social structure includes bachelor herds, nursery herds, and territorial males. Nursery herds will usually stay with the same territorial male year-round. He will mark his territory with dung and urine.

• Territories are small and few in number, leaving large areas available for nursery and bachelor herds. Nursery herds contain a few females and one or two lambs. Bachelor herds contain up to 14 or 15 individuals, mostly males over one year of age and yearling females.

• Males display dominance by standing sideways, digging up soil, stamping their feet, and swinging their heads. Males will occasionally clash horns to determine dominance.

• Bontebok closely resemble blesbok. They are currently considered subspecies of a common ancestor. The two subspecies are very visually similar, but blesbok typically have a brown patch between the eyes separating their white facial blaze. Both species are endemic to South Africa.

• They are most active in the early morning and evening and communicate through grunting, snorting, and scent marking.

• Unlike other antelopes, bontebok are not good jumpers, but they can crawl under objects efficiently. This inability to jump has benefitted their conservation, as farmers are able to contain them in protected habitat and protect them from predators using fencing.

• Their predators include lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, caracals, and jackals. They prefer to run away to avoid confrontation but will use their horns for defense when necessary.

Updated August 2022