Antelope

Antelope, any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals belonging to the family Bovidae. Antelopes account for over two-thirds of the approximately 135 species of hollow-horned ruminants in the family Bovidae, which also includes cattle, sheep, and goats. One antelope, the Indian blackbuck, bears the Latin name Antilope cervicapra; nevertheless, antelope is not a taxonomic name but a catchall term for an astonishing variety of ruminating ungulates ranging in size from the diminutive royal antelope to the giant eland. Africa, with some 71 species, is the continent of antelopes. Only 14 species inhabit the entire continent of Asia, and all but three of them are members of the gazelle tribe. As in all of Bovidae, all male antelopes have horns, which range from the short spikes of duikers to the corkscrew horns of the greater kudu. Two-thirds of female antelopes bear horns; they are invariably thinner and usually shorter than those of the male. In gregarious species in which both sexes regularly associate in mixed herds, the horns are similarly shaped, and in female oryxes and elands they are often longer.