Bontebok Facts

Bontebok Profile

In recent years, the world lost its first recorded African mammal species at the hands of European settlers in Africa. By 1800, the last bluebuck had been shot, and there are now only four skins of the animal to be found on display in museums. 

At around the same time, another species of antelope was about to follow suit, until someone managed to collect the last remaining few and repopulate the entire species.

This remarkable last-ditch conservation effort is the reason we’re still able to see Bontebok around today, and why they’re no longer threatened with extinction. 

Bontebok Facts Overview

Bontebok are a subspecies of the Blesbok, differentiated primarily by their location. They look very similar, with dark fur and a contrasting bright white legs and butt. 

Their bright white faces give them both perpetual duckface, and they’re so similar that the species is a bit watered down with hybrids, bred deliberately to make bontebles.

They’re not the most elaborate of conversationalists, neither are they the most agile of antelopes and prefer to crawl under things than jump over them which has, incredibly, helped save their species. 

Interesting Bontebok Facts

1. They’re a blesbok?

The species Damaliscus pygargus occurs in South Africa and is split into two subspecies, the blesbok, D. p. phillipsi, which is found in Eastern and Central South Africa, and today’s subject the Bontebok, who is more comfortable in the Highveld inland plateau and coastal plains of South Africa. 

There’s not a huge difference between them (they both have silly names), but like many antelope, you can tell them apart by looking at their arses. 

Bontebok have a nice bright bum, as white as their faces, while blesbok are brown at the rear. 

While blesbok are commonly found in wild areas, the bontebok is now almost entirely confined to protected areas. ¹

2. They’re threatened by hybridisation

Because they’re so similar, the two can produce fertile offspring. The resulting Bontebles were always destined to have a ridiculous moniker, but more than this, they threaten to water down the genetic stock of the two subspecies, with potentially damaging consequences. 

Genetic swamping like this always runs the risk of averaging out unique adaptations in both partners, reducing their genetic fitness for the environment they evolved in. 

The translocation of both subspecies outside of their natural ranges increases the chances of hybridisation, though the extent to which this is happening is unclear. ²

3. They’re honkers

When talking to one another, bontebok uses a series of grunts and honks. This is not a complex language by any means, and the more detailed information comes from scent marking and body language, as it does in most antelope. 

Males will engage in battle and will clash horns to defend territory and show off to any females watching. When females enter the grazing territory of a male, he must present with a powerful stance to gain her attention. ³

4. They’re crawlers, not jumpers

While they have a certain prowess, bonteboks are not all that agile. They can barely jump, and pronking is out of the question. 

However, they are good at getting down and dirty and crawling under stuff. 

5. This saved their existence

Hunting and pastoralism really did a number on the African antelopes, perhaps none moreso than the blue antelope, or bluebuck, which has disappeared entirely and probably won’t be coming back. 

The bontebok followed a very similar trajectory, resulting in fragmented populations, and almost wiping the species out entirely. Like the bluebuck, it was considered a pest and was slaughtered as such to the point of eradication, almost. 

Not long after the bluebuck died out, some farmers took pity on the bontebok and built a fenced enclosure to hold just 17 of them. 

The bontebok’s lack of springing ability ensured they couldn’t get over this fence, and there they stayed, and bred, until there were quite a few more of them. 

This would have begun some time around 1820, and by 1960 there were 800 bontebok, all the creepy incest babies of those 17 remaining bontebok. 

Now, there are more than 3,000 and not only are they considered of Least Concern to the IUCN, they’re stable as a population, despite being somewhat inbred. 

Still, the species is technically extinct in its natural habitat, as they only occupy protected lands now, but unlike one fourth of antelope species are still threatened with extinction, this one has now made a remarkable recovery! ⁴ 

6. Now they’re sustainably hunted

The meat of the bontebok is now hunted sustainably from this populations. The protection and recovery of this species has been one of the most remarkable turnarounds of any animal species known, and the fact that there are plenty for local hunters to exploit after coming so close to eradication is a testament to the efforts of conservationists! 

Bontebok National Park is home to around 200 of them, and all Bontebok in the world today come from the original supply in this park. Over time, the park released its surplus supply into other ranches and nature reserves, gradually spreading them out and repopulating the country. ⁵

Bontebok Fact-File Summary

Scientific Classification

1. “Damaliscus pygargus blesbok”, Animal Diversity Web.
2. “Blesbok”, IUCN Red List.
3. “Bontebok”, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
4. Elisabeth Hempel (2021), “Identifying the true number of specimens of the extinct blue antelope (Hippotragus leucophaeus)”, Publication.
5. Kayla-Anne (2020), “The meat quality of bontebok (Damaliscus pygargus pygargus)”, Stellenbosch University.