Everything you need to know about the Cape Bushbuck (with photos)

Publish date: 2024-05-03

Is it not mesmerizing to watch a Cape Bushbuck play and get comfortable in its natural phenomena? The full view can be just relaxing to those who love seeing the wild compete into surviving to be alive on the food chain.

The Cape Bushbuck perfectly wows most people with the naturally blended fur, accompanied by its quite striking colours. However, some vary in terms of colour, habitat, breeding mechanisms, and feeding habits. These animals have won many hearts as people consider them an important aspect of their culture and the wild. Well, there is just so much more you can discover about the bushbuck animal.

The bushbuck facts

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About bushbucks

The admirably beautiful animals stretch from the South African Cape, Angola, Zambia, and the eastern areas of Ethiopia and Somalia. The name "bushbuck" originates from the Xhosa language spoken in SA. Furthermore, their most preferable surroundings include rain forests, woodland, bush savanna forest, forest-savanna mosaics, and the montane forests. Some bushbuck subspecies include the “nyala” and “kewel" antelopes.

Furthermore, other group species include the Limpopo, Barker, Abyssinian, Chobe, East African, harnessed, Menelik’s, Shoan, and the Nile species. With the different locations and surroundings, these species come in different shades of fur and spots.

Cape Bushbuck characteristics

Bushbuck habitat

These vibrant animals happen to be quite distinctive from other animals as they do not operate on territories; the males stay away from one another. These bushbuck antelope stay in places called" homes," which at times can extend to other antelope areas. Additionally, their homes can be close to 50,000 square meters.

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During the day, they enjoy moving around, running, feeding, or even standing. However, their most active hours are early in the morning and partly at night. Interestingly, they become super nocturnal when near human settlements.

Bushbuck diet and mating mechanism

These types of species mainly browse but also add plant supplements like twigs and herbs on their meals. On matters concerning mating, the rainy period serves as the peak season of mating. In females, the gestation lasts for seven months, after which a bushbuck baby gets born.

The young one is left in a hidden location where the mother occasionally visits to nurse it. At four months old, the baby gets to go out momentarily. The male baby bushbuck sprout twisted horns at ten months old.

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Defense mechanism

In case of danger or threats, the bushbuck has ways to mitigate its chances of being caught. One of them is by lying straight on the ground or by moving on a much slower pace to find cover. Also, it can simply run trying to save itself.

Their population is on stable levels as their habitat is not destroyed due to their adaptive characteristics. On the contrary, factors like new settlements, road constructions, or lack of natural growing vegetation can be a big issue for their survival. Additionally, some people hunt them for their skin, adding to the depleting numbers in those areas.

Bushbuck vs Nyala

Nyala’s have a huge similarity to bushbucks. However, some distinctive features are found on the Nyala but not on the bushbuck. For instance, their fur coat has white vertical stripes on the flanks. A ridge of long hair also resides along their underparts, just behind the chin.

Similarly, Nyalas are grazers and browsers, so they feed on leaves and fruits. However, unlike the bushbuck, mating gets its peak during autumn and spring seasons. Also, the calves are born after a 6-7 months gestation period.

The Nyala also occasionally gets double bundles of joy as twins are common phenomena to them. However, for a male to win his future mate partner's heart, they have to keep up a dominance behaviour to see who gets the golden opportunity.

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Cape bushbuck vs Limpopo bushbuck

Unlike the cape antelopes, the Limpopo bushbucks reside around the Limpopo River near drainage areas. The surroundings are distinctive from the cape ones as they do not live next to river drainages but in "homes." The Limpopo type lives in habitats that extend from sea levels to 9000 feet in East Africa. The Limpopo bushbuck lives near water surroundings and is seldom found far from water.

Well, the wild is filled with wonders that people have still not seen. Especially the Cape bushbuck will continue to be among the animals whose habitats need to be protected from fading away. It is just like your home, helping protect theirs is similar to protecting yours!

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