Blackbuck

About this species

Size

Shoulder 74–84cm; head and body about 1.2m

Habitat

Open grassy plains and thinly wooded country with water nearby; not hills or dense forest

The blackbuck is a slender, medium-sized antelope and one of the most striking animals of India's plains. Adult males are two-toned, dark brown to black above and on the outside of the legs, pure white below and on the inner legs, with a white chin and eye-rings set against dark facial stripes. They darken with age and carry long, ringed horns that twist like corkscrews. Females and young are yellowish fawn to tan. It resembles a gazelle but no gazelle has the male's black back (Wikipedia, general species account).

Across its range the blackbuck is active by day, resting at noon in the summer heat, and it is one of the fastest antelopes, able to run at about 80 km/h. It lives in herds whose size depends on the food and cover available: larger herds spot danger sooner and spend more time feeding, but herds shrink in the dry summer. It needs to drink daily, so herds may travel long distances to water (Wikipedia, general species account).

Blackbuck once covered the plains of most of India. They still occur in 13 states, but only about 1% of their former numbers may survive (Rahmani, Down To Earth 2018). The best herds are in small protected grasslands: Velavadar Blackbuck National Park in Gujarat covers just 34 km², and Tal Chhapar in Rajasthan may hold about a thousand animals in 7 km². Point Calimere in Tamil Nadu is another stronghold. Bishnoi communities in Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab hold the blackbuck sacred, and a few thousand survive on their lands. Stray dogs, poaching and loss of grassland are the main threats.

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)