Word Finder - antelopes

definition

Any of several African mammals of the family Bovidae distinguished by hollow horns, which, unlike deer, they do not shed.

definition

The pronghorn, Antilocapra americana.

definition

A fierce legendary creature said to live on the banks of the Euphrates, having long serrated horns and being hard to catch.

The larger antelopes, so common on the African side of the Gulf of Aden, are not found, except one variety, the Oryx beatrix (called by the Arabs, wild cow), which is an inhabitant of the Nafud between Tema and Hail; it is about the size of a donkey, white, and with long straight horns.

The hartebeest appears now to be quite extinct; so also is the leucoryx, though formerly these two antelopes were found right up to the centre of Tunisia, as was also the ostrich, now entirely absent from the country.

The group at the present day is divided into Girafjidae (giraffe and okapi), Cervidae (deer), Antilocapridae (prongbuck), and Bovidae (oxen, sheep, goats, antelopes, &c.).

It follows that the subfamily typified by this species, in which are included the gazelles, is the one to which alone the term antelopes should be applied if it were employed in a restricted and definable sense.

Some, for instance, may consider that the chamois and the so-called white goat of the Rocky Mountains are entitled to be included in the group; but this is not the view held by the authors of the Book of Antelopes referred to below; and, as a matter of fact, the term is only a vague designation for a number of more or less distinct groups of hollow-horned ruminants which do not come under the designation of cattle, sheep or goats; and in reality there ought to be a distinct English groupname for each subfamily into which "antelopes" are subdivided.

The great majority of antelopes, exclusive of the doubtful chamois group (which, however, will be included in the present article), are African, although the gazelles are to a considerable extent an Asiatic;'group. They include ruminants varying in size from a hare to an ox; and comprise about 150 species, although this number is subject to considerable variation according to personal views as to the limitations of species and races.

No true antelopes are American, the prongbuck (Antilocapra), which is commonly called "antelope" in the United States, representing a distinct group; while, as already mentioned, the Rocky Mountain or white goat stands on the borderland between antelopes and goats.

The first group, or Tragelaphinae, is represented by the African elands (Taurotragus), bongo (Boocercus), kudus (Strepsiceros) and bushbucks or harnessed antelopes (Tragelaphus), and the Indian nilgai (Boselaphus).

The harnessed antelopes, or bushbucks, are closely allied to the kudus, from which they chiefly differ by the spiral formed by the horns generally having fewer turns.

They include some of the most brilliantly coloured of all antelopes; the ornamentation taking the form of vertical white lines and rows of spots.

These are for the most part large antelopes, with long cylindrical horns, which are present in both sexes, hairy muzzles, no face-glands, long tufted tails and tall thick molars of the ox-type.

Formerly these beautiful antelopes existed in countless numbers on the plains of South Africa, and were in the habit of migrating in droves which completely filled entire valleys.

The sheep-like saiga, Saiga tatarica, of the Kirghiz steppes stands apart from all other antelopes by its curiously puffed and trunk-like nose, which can be wrinkled up when the animal is feeding and has the nostrils opening downwards.

The Neotraginae (or Nanotraginae) form an exclusively African group of small-sized antelopes divided into several, for the most part nearly related, genera.

These are medium-sized or large antelopes with naked muzzles, narrow sheep-like upper molars, fairly long tails, rudimentary or no face-glands, and pits in the frontal bones of the skull.

Reedbuck, or rietbok (Cervicapra), are foxy-red antelopes ranging in size from a fallow-deer to a roe, with thick bushy tails, forwardly curving black horns, and a bare patch of glandular skin behind each ear.

The last section of the true antelopes is the Bubalinae, represented by the hartebeest, Bubalis, blesbok and sassaby (Damaliscus), and the gnu or wildebeest (Connochaetes, also called Catoblepas), all being African with the exception of one or two hartebeests which range into Syria.

All these are large and generally more or less uniformly coloured antelopes with horns in both sexes, long and more or less hairy tails, high withers, small face-glands, naked muzzles, tall, narrow upper molars, and the absence of pits in the frontal bones.

The colour, too, of these antelopes tends in many cases to purple, with white markings.

In concluding, this survey of living antelopes, reference may be made to the subfamilyRupicaprinae (typified by the European chamois), the members of which, as already stated, are in some respects intermediate between antelopes and goats.

Only a few lines can be devoted to extinct antelopes, the earliest of which apparently date from the European Miocene.

The ancient Greeks and Romans kept in captivity large numbers of such animals as leopards, lions, bears, elephants, antelopes, giraffes, camels, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses, as well as ostriches and crocodiles, but these were destined for slaughter at the gladiatorial shows.

The collection is not usually very rich in species, but there have been great and long-continued successes in the breeding of large animals such as hippopotamuses, lions and antelopes, and a very large business is done in domesticated birds, water-fowl and cage birds.

At one time London was able to supply many Continental gardens with giraffes, and Dublin and Antwerp have had great successes with lions, whilst antelopes, sheep and cattle, deer and equine animals are always to be found breeding in one collection or another.

It preys upon almost any animal it can overcome, such as antelopes, deer, sheep, goats, monkeys, peafowl, and has a special liking for dogs.

It is displayed to-day among the antelopes and to a limited degree among the zebras and rhinoceroses of Africa, a continent which exhibits a survival of the Miocene and Pliocene conditions of the northern hemisphere.

The former - the sole representative, in western Europe, of the antelopes - is found elsewhere only in the Pyrenees, Carpathians, Caucasus and the mountains of eastern Turkey; the latter survives only in the eastern Graian Alps.

The chiru, which belongs to the typical or antilopine section of antelopes, is probably allied to the saiga.

His food consists of all the larger herbivorous animals of the country in which he resides - buffaloes, antelopes, zebras, giraffes or even young elephants or rhinoceroses.

The latter prey on the various kinds of antelopes which swarm on the grass lands.

The most noteworthy point of distinction is in the skull, in which the facial portion is sharply bent down on the posterior basal axis in the fashion characteristic of the hollow-horned ruminants (oxen, antelopes, &c.), and the American prongbuck, instead of running more or less nearly parallel to the same, as in deer.

As regards the general structure of the rest, of the skeleton, it must suffice to say that this agrees closely with that of the antelopes and the prongbuck, and differs markedly from the cervine type.

Either we must regard Merycodus as a deer which parallels the antelopes and the prongbuck in every detail of skeletal structure, or else, like the prongbuck, an antelope separated from the main stock at a date sufficiently early to have permitted the development of a distinct type of cranial appendages, namely, antlers in place of true horns.

On the latter view Merycodus, the prongbuck (Antilocapra) and the antelopes must be regarded as representing three branches from an original common stock, divergent as regards the structure of their cranial appendages, but parallel in other respects.

But American extinct types appear to indicate signs of intimate relationship between antelopes, prongbuck and deer, and it may be necessary eventually to amend the current classification.

Their favourite prey is sheep, but tribe, they are also said to run down antelopes and hares, or rather catch them by lying in ambush.

In all these antelopes long cylindrical horns are present in both sexes; the muzzle is hairy; there is no gland below the eye; the tail is long and tufted; and in the breadth of their tall crowns the upper molar-teeth resemble those of the oxen.

The sable and roan antelopes are distinguished from Oryx by the stout and thickly ringed horns rising vertically from a ridge over the eyes at an obtuse angle to the plane of the lower part of the face, and then sweeping backwards in a bold curve.

Sable antelope are among the handsomest of South African antelopes, and are endowed with great speed and staying power.

Leopards still haunt the cane-brakes and thickets along the banks of the rivers; and nilgai and antelopes abound.

There are deer (at least five species), boars, bears, antelopes, beavers, otters, badgers, tiger-cats, marten, an inferior sable, striped squirrels, &c. Among birds there are black eagles, peregrines (largely used in hawking), and, specially protected by law, turkey bustards, three varieties of pheasants, swans, geese, common and spectacled teal, mallards, mandarin ducks white and pink ibis, cranes, storks, egrets, herons, curlews, pigeons, doves, nightjars, common and blue magpies, rooks, crows, orioles, halcyon and blue kingfishers, jays, nut-hatches, redstarts, snipe, grey shrikes, hawks, kites, &c. But, pending further observations, it is not possible to say which of the smaller birds actually breed in Korea and which only make it a halting-place in their annual migrations.

The caracal is easily tamed, and in some parts of India is trained to capture the smaller antelopes and deer and such birds as the crane and pelican.

Messrs Nicolls and Eglington, joint authors of The Sportsman in South Africa, state that the serval is fairly common in South Central Africa, frequenting the thick bush near rivers, and preying on the smaller antelopes, guinea-fowls and francolins.

The activity of these antelopes is marvellous.

Though sometimes assembling in troops of from thirty to fifty, and then generally associating with zebras or with some of the larger antelopes, ostriches commonly, and especially in the breeding season, live in companies of not more than four or five, one of which is a cock and the rest are hens.

The kudu is now the most common of the larger antelopes, the duiker and klipspringer are among the smaller antelopes still existing in large numbers.

The majority are inhabitants of Australia and Tasmania, forming one of the most prominent and characteristic features of the fauna of these lands, and performing the part of the deer and antelopes of other parts of the world.

The fauna of the Tibetan Himalaya is essentially European or rather that of the northern half of the old continent, which region has by zoologists been termed Palaearctic. Among the characteristic animals may be named the yak, from which is reared a cross breed with the ordinary horned cattle of India, many wild sheep, and two antelopes, as well as the musk-deer; several hares and some burrowing animals, including pikas (Lagomys) and two or three species of marmot; certain arctic forms of carnivora - fox, wolf, lynx, ounce, marten and ermine; also wild asses.

This consists for the most part of the smaller mammals and poultry; although the association in packs enables these marauders to hunt down antelopes and sheep. When unable to obtain living prey, they feed on carrion and refuse of all kinds, and are thus useful in removing putrescent matter from the streets.

There are several allied species, sometimes known as harnessed antelopes, which are of a larger size.