KalahariLog

There are many antelopes in Southern Africa and while we haven't seen most of them we did see a few. Impalas are among the most common. They are smallish and light in color and easy to recognize from behind because of their M-shaped markings. We've been told they are tasty, and indeed, restaurants often have "impala steak", "impala burger", etc. They are famed for long-distance jumping feats of up to 9m (30ft).

Another small antelope is the bushbuck. They are very graceful and delicate with white spots on their sides. They look like one would imagine Bambi would look, if it lived in Botswana. We haven't seen many bushbucks, so we are still excited when we spot one.

Going to larger ones, the waterbuck is a more stocky, solidly-built model. They look like they mean business when they go at the shrubs along the water edge. This one gave us a staring contest which he was about to win if it wasn't for a noise that startled him. They have a perfectly round white bull's-eye on their behinds (yet another one that's easier to identify from the back).

The sable antelopes are also big and strong. They jump over 2 meters high and are known for appearing seemingly out of nowhere on the road in front of your car. They sure looked to be fast movers and we haven't seem them up-close yet. We saw this bunch in Zambezi National Park, on our way to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The driver spotted them before they began crossing the road and immediately slowed down and waited a minute or two after the last one had crossed, just to be on the safe side. Mature males can be over 250kg (500lbs) and hitting one of them at high speed can be pretty deadly.


The largest antelope we have seen is the kudu. They look like a mix between a camel and a hare with a bit of a hump and giant ears. Their identifying marks are a series of white vertical stripes on the sides. While the galls can look dainty even when they are that big (pictured), the guys can get really big and reach 500kg (1000lbs) and with the giant horns and all they look a bit dangerous. Two of them are on the coat of arms of Zimbabwe.

Giraffes are not technically antelopes, although they are closely related. They are big at up to 2000kg (4000lbs) but they are surprisingly graceful and fast runners going at speeds of up to 55kph (33mph). To accommodate the long neck, modification to the standard wiring systems were made, especially in blood circulation, and getting water to travel from their mouths to their bellies.

The African buffaloes, or Cape buffaloes, are not antelopes either but are in the same family (bovidae). We saw them in big groups and by themselves. They are reputed to be dangerous and can do a lot of damage if aggravated, killing even lions who dare to attack them. They get to be over 1000kg (2000lbs) and sometimes charge people, although the ones we saw seemed more interested in the grass.

One of our guides in Kasane told us that the buffaloes often cross town in a dried wash and occasionally people get in their way, but curiously, the people who get hurt are always young, men, and with a bit of alcohol in them. In this way, the profile of a buffalo-injured person in Botswana is similar to the profile of a rattlesnake-bitten person in Arizona: in both cases youth, maleness, and alcohol are highly co-related with the injury. Not surprisingly, the US Marine who gave us a security briefing the other day also mentioned that Americans who get in trouble in Africa (say, mugged, or beaten up) are typically single young men who get drunk late at night.