Bontebok

The bontebok is a tall, medium-sized antelope of South Africa, naturally occurring in the Fynbos and Renosterveld of the Western Cape. It is chocolate brown with a white underside, a white stripe from forehead to nose and a distinctive white patch around the tail. Both sexes carry lyre-shaped, clearly ringed horns that can reach half a metre. Active by day but resting in the midday heat, it lives in herds that may be all male, all female or mixed, and do not exceed 40 animals. Mature males hold territories and face down rivals in displays. Bontebok are poor jumpers but very good at crawling under things.

About the bontebok

The bontebok (Damaliscus pygargus pygargus) is a medium-sized antelope found only in the Western Cape of South Africa, where it grazes the coastal fynbos and renosterveld. It is one of two subspecies of Damaliscus pygargus; the other is the blesbok of the Highveld. Its close relatives include the common tsessebe and the topi.

The name comes from the Afrikaans word bont, meaning brightly colored, a nod to its rich, glossy coat. The scientific name pygargus refers to the white patch around the tail.

The bontebok is a tall antelope, standing 0.8–1 m (2.6–3.3 ft) at the shoulder with a head-and-body length of 1.2–1.6 m (3.9–5.2 ft). The tail measures 30–60 cm (12–24 in) and ends in a tuft of black hair. Adults weigh 50–68 kg (110–150 lb), and males are slightly larger and noticeably heavier than females.

The coat is a dark, glossy, purplish chocolate-brown above, set off by a white belly, high white "stockings" on the legs and a white rump patch around the tail. A white blaze runs from the forehead to the tip of the nose. Both sexes carry lyre-shaped, clearly ringed horns that can reach half a meter (20 in) long. Calves are born a lighter brown with dark faces and look identical to young topi.

Behavior and diet

Bontebok are diurnal grazers. They feed through the morning and afternoon and rest during the heat of midday and in the evening. They eat grasses, mainly of the genera Bromus and Danthonia, along with Eragrostis.

They are social animals. Herds may be all male, all female or mixed, and bontebok herds do not exceed 40 animals; most groups seen are smaller than ten. Herd membership is loose and changes often. Where they have enough room, bontebok keep up a semi-nomadic pattern, wandering their range in loose groups, a holdover from the days when the species moved between seasonal pastures.

Mature males hold territories. They mark them with dung heaps and display to rival males by standing sideways, digging the soil with their horns, stamping and swinging their heads. Ritual "challenge" meetings between neighbors are common, and real fights involve clashing horns and can be fatal. Both sexes also mark grass stalks by stroking them with their horns, leaving secretions from a gland in front of the eye. Grunts and snorts serve as alarm calls.

One quirk had a big effect on the species' history. Bontebok are poor jumpers but very good at crawling under obstacles. That is why a fence could hold the small herd that saved them from extinction.

Bontebok mate in February. After a gestation of about eight months, a single calf is born between August and mid-December, usually in tall grass, and it can move about within two hours of birth.

Range and habitat

The bontebok is endemic to the Cape Floral area of South Africa's Western Cape. It lives in coastal fynbos and renosterveld, plant communities found in the Cape Floristic Region. Its sister subspecies, the blesbok, lives on the open grasslands of the Highveld.

Today the bontebok is extinct as a truly wild animal. The worldwide population lives in protected areas, on nature reserves and on private game farms. Bontebok National Park, 6 km (3.7 mi) south of Swellendam in the foothills of the Langeberg Mountains, is the smallest of South Africa's national parks at 27.86 square km (10.76 square mi). It can support only about 200 bontebok without damaging its plants, so surplus animals are moved to other reserves and private land. The park also protects the blue crane, South Africa's national bird.

Bontebok vs blesbok

The bontebok and the blesbok are two subspecies of the same antelope. They can interbreed, and their hybrid offspring are known as bontebles. The differences between them arose from their preference for different habitats.

Conservation status

The bontebok subspecies (D. p. pygargus) is listed as Vulnerable in a 2017 IUCN Red List assessment, and it appears on Appendix II of CITES. The species Damaliscus pygargus as a whole, which includes the far more numerous blesbok, is shown on the IUCN Red List as Least Concern.

Its story is a dramatic rescue. Bontebok were once killed in large numbers as pests, and by the early 20th century fewer than 70 remained in the wild. A government investigation led to a tract of land in the Bredasdorp district where farmers helped herd 16 or 17 animals into a fenced area they could not jump out of. In 1931 that herd of 17 became the founding population of Bontebok National Park, created to save the species. By 1961, when the park was moved to a site better suited to the animals, the herd had grown to 61, and all 61 were translocated. The population also suffered setbacks: in the 1960s half of it died from worm infestations, copper deficiency and related problems.

Today's population of 2,500 to 3,000 bontebok all descend from that original herd of 17. Because they are easy to keep and popular with hunters, bontebok are now widely farmed. Interbreeding between the two subspecies is a concern, and hybridization with bontebok is considered the main threat to the blesbok. The bontebok is the provincial animal of the Western Cape.