Gazelle Vs Antelope, How Can You Tell Them Apart?

You probably guess that they are not the same but how to tell the difference is not clear. Antelopes, including gazelles, are significant animals found throughout Asia and Africa. Given that the gazelle is a member of the antelope family, its specialty must be well understood.

Gazelles are small but long-bodied mammals of the Bovidae family. Antelopes belong to the family Bovidae since they are ungulates with equal fingers. There are 91 species of antelope which includes 14 Gazelle species. Antelopes live in high water levels, and gazelle only live in deserts.

Gazelle

Antelope are any of a variety of browsing hoofed and grazing animals in the Bovidae family. Antelopes include more than two-thirds of the approximately 135 species of hollow-horned ruminants in the family Bovidae, including cattle, sheep, and goats.

Antilope cervicapra is the Latin name for one antelope, the Indian blackbuck. Antelope is a catch-all phrase for a wide range of ruminating ungulates, not a scientific designation. Sizes range from the tiny royal antelope (4 pounds) to the massive eland (1,800 pounds).

Africa is the continent of antelopes, with 71 species. There are just 14 species in the entire continent of Asia, and all but three are gazelle species.

Appearance And Conduct

Like the rest of the Bovidae family, all-male antelopes have horns that range in length from the small spikes of duikers to the corkscrew horns (63 inches long) of the larger kudu. Two-thirds of female antelopes have horns, which are always smaller and shorter than male antelope horns. The horns are comparable in form, in sociable animals where both sexes often mingle in mixed herds, and they are frequently longer in female oryxes and elands.

Antelopes have evolved to a variety of ecological niches. Therefore their size, morphology, movement, feeding, social organization, and antipredator approach are diverse. Despite the diversity of adaptations, one essential conclusion can be made: antelopes from restricted environments differ significantly from open habitats.

The former are typically tiny to medium-sized creatures with overdeveloped hindquarters, a rounded back, and short legs, suitable for moving in vegetation. This conformation is suited to rapid starts and bounding, dodging run, which is how cover-dependent antelopes who rely on concealment as their first line of defense try to avoid predators who have the chance to discover them.

Their coloring helps them blend in. They are solitary, living in sheltered home ranges alone or married pairs, and prefer to consume foliage rather than graze grass. Antelopes in open settings, on the other hand, are mainly medium to big grass eaters. They have level backs and long, similarly developed limbs and are built for speed. They feature a gregarious social structure and a male territoriality-based mating system.

Classification

Antelopes are divided into three subfamilies and ten tribes by taxonomists, distinguishing them from cattle, sheep, and goats (tribe Caprini). However, antelopes are related to cattle and goats: spiral-horned antelopes belong to the Bovinae subfamily, which contains cattle, and the Boselaphini tribe, which includes the great nilgai and the tiny four-horned antelope.

DNA evidence has revealed that certain Asian bovids appear and act like antelopes, most notably the chiru, or Tibetan antelope, are caprines. In contrast, three species, the Mongolian gazelle, Tibetan gazelle, and Przewalski’s gazelle, were classified in the genus Procapra for their screams.

Gazelle is a medium-sized antelope with thin, uniformly formed limbs, a flat back, and a long neck. The majority of gazelles have tan underparts and rump patches, a black side stripe, and contrasting face patterns. They live in Asia’s dry regions, from China to the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa’s drylands, from the Saharan deserts to the Sub-Saharan Sahel, and northeast Africa’s drylands, from the Horn of Africa to Tanzania. The majority of gazelles belong to the genus Gazella, part of the Bovidae family (order Artiodactyla).

Traditionally, the genus Gazella was thought to have 14 species. Using genetic tools for investigating evolutionary ties, experts in the taxonomy of the gazelle tribe now believe that gazelles descended from several ancestors. As a result, some experts have separated six African species from Gazella and put them in two other genera.

Ecology And Behavior

Gazelles, like other arid-region antelopes, are nomadic, migratory, or both. All gazelles are sociable; females and young, as well as bachelor males, form groups. During migration, the sexes mingle in mixed herds, but when breeding chances come, territorial males separate them. Gazelles have glands in an exceptionally large number.

Between the hooves, in the groin, in the front of the forelegs, and front of the eyes, they are positioned. The pre-orbitals of certain species’ males secrete a sticky black substance that is daubed on twigs and grass stems to mark territory. However, all members of the gazelle tribe use urine and excrement to mark their territory, which they deposit on dung middens in a coordinated, highly ritualized activity.

Due to the ability of motorized vehicles to run down antelopes on broad plains, all gazelles have been wiped off over the majority of their habitat. Gazelle populations have also been impacted by habitat deterioration and cattle competition.

Antelope

Antelope is a kind of Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammal that belongs to the Bovidae family. Approximately 135 species of hollow-horned ruminants of the Bovidae family, including cattle, sheep, and goats, are antelopes.

Antilope cervicapra is the Latin name for one antelope, the Indian blackbuck. Antelope is a generic word for a wide range of ruminating ungulates, not a taxonomic designation. The royal antelope (4 pounds) is the smallest species, while the enormous eland is the largest (1,800 pounds).

Africa is the continent of antelopes, with 71 species. There are just 14 species in the entire continent of Asia, and all but three are gazelle species.

How Can You Tell Them Apart?

Antelopes belong to the Bovidae family, and gazelles are a genus of antelopes. Impala, gazelle, oryx, waterbuck, eland, wildebeest, and various other animals make up this diverse group.

Antelopes are all ungulates, which means their hooves are even-toed. Gazelles, like other antelopes, have a stomach with four chambers. However, the most significant changes were in their size and horns:

Gazelles are typically smaller than other antelope species. When comparing the size of a Thompson gazelle (which weighs roughly 66 pounds) to an eland (which may weigh up to 2094 pounds, if not more), the disparity in size is easy to see.

Secondly, in most species of gazelles, both male and female animals have horns. For example, with impalas, only males have horns. That’s why an impala is an antelope but not a gazelle.

Another difference between gazelles and other antelopes is that only gazelles tend to display a behavior known as stotting. When alerted by a predator, they move slowly before leaping vertically in the air. On landing, they open up the throttle and can easily escape most predators.

Gazelles can often be seen on the open plains of southern Serengeti. They are adapted to graze on the lower shorter shoots, which other larger antelopes leave. This makes competition for food easier.

Conclusion

To recap, we can mark some elements, and the main fact here is that all gazelles are antelopes, but not all antelopes are gazelles. Gazelles showed spotting behavior, but not all antelopes. The gazelle is smaller than all antelopes, and they can be faster than most other antelopes. Interesting fact, antelopes, in general, inhabit a range of ecosystems, including deserts, cold environments, and around water-supplied areas; On the other hand, gazelles live only in deserts.