A cheat sheet of all the different antelope species found in the country, along with a quick overview of the many threats they face.
As published in Nature inFocus on 12, February 2022.
If you are a wildlife photographer from India, you are likely to have documented Blackbucks, either displaying their impressive leap while galloping through a grassland or with antlers-locked as two males engage in a battle for territory. If you are one of the luckier ones, you may have a freeze-frame of that rare glimpse of a Chousingha before it retreats into the wilderness or that of a Tibetan Antelope, once you have scaled the heights for it, of course! The point that we are trying to make is that the antelopes of India are an impressive bunch, and it’s hard not to pay attention to them!
Antelopes belong to the Bovidae family, whose other members include goats, sheep and cattle. Deer belong to the Cervidae family, which also includes true hoofed mammals like the elk and the Barasingha. While male deer sport branched antlers, they shed and regrow every year, whereas the male antelope’s horns are a permanent morphological feature.
Next up, gazelles. Okay, now this is a tricky one. Basically, all gazelles are antelopes, but not all antelopes are gazelles. Antelopes are the bigger family unit, and gazelles form a small part of it. There are some similarities and differences between them. For example, both gazelles and antelopes have four-chambered stomachs, but among gazelles, both the sexes have horns which is not the case with antelopes.
Head over to Nature inFocus to read the complete story.