The bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus) is a common and widespread species of antelope in Sub-Saharan Africa. These animals have a light brown coat, with up to seven white stripes and white splotches on the sides. The white patches are usually geometrically shaped and on the most mobile parts of their body such as the ears, chin, tail, legs, and neck. The muzzle is also white and horns are found only on the males.
A male bushbuck
Range & Habitat
From West Africa to Central Africa and from northeastern Africa to southern Africa, bushbucks successfully inhabit 40 African countries, occurring from the Cape in South Africa to Angola and Zambia and up the eastern part of Africa to Ethiopia and Somalia. They even live on the small islands off the west coast.
Bushbuck are found in a wide range of habitats, such as rain forests, montane forests, forest-savanna mosaic, savanna, bushveld and woodland. They live in a wide range of habitats, although they prefer forested or wooded regions close to a water source.
Distribution of the Bushbuck in Africa
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They require cover for concealment, nearly irrespective of altitude or aridity and are found near rivers, edges or brushy cover associated with rivers and streams, not far from some type of cover. Bushbucks are found in a terrestrial biome intermediate between grassland and forest, where trees and shrubs do not form a closed canopy.
Physical Characteristics
Bushbuck stand about 90 centimetres (35 in) at the shoulder and weigh from 45 to 80 kilograms (99 to 176 lb). Shoulder heights range from 70 to 100 cm, with an average height of 85 cm. Male bushbucks have horns, which are between 10 and 20 inches long and grow straight back. Bushbuck horns have a single twist and smooth edges. Horns, found only on the males, can reach over half a metre and have a single twist.
Female bushbucks tend to be more brown than males.
Diet
Bushbucks are browsers. They eat a range of herbs and young leaves from both shrubs and trees throughout the day and night. They are herbivorous (folivorous) animals, eating different herbs and the leaves, twigs, and flowers of various plant species. Studies of free-ranging bushbuck in various parts of southeastern Africa using DNA metabarcoding show that bushbuck frequently forage on acacias (Senegalia, Vachellia) and other legumes, along with mallows (Grewia, Hibiscus), bushwillows (Combretum), buckthorns (Berchemia, Ziziphus) and various other plants.
Behavior
Bushbucks spend most of their time eating, ruminating, resting, and moving. Bushbuck are the only not territorial and solitary animals. The mature males usually go out of their way to stay away from each other. These antelopes are usually most active during early morning and part of the night but tend to be nocturnal near human habitations. They are most active at dawn and dusk, though this varies based on season, age, and sex. They spend their day feeding, standing and moving about. When threatened bushbuck will lie flat on the ground, or may run away producing series of hoarse barks.
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When either a male or a female senses a predator in the distance, they freeze and drop to the ground, keeping their head and neck against the earth until the danger passes. When feeling the danger in the open area, they may stand still or will slowly walk to the nearest cover.
Communication
Bushbucks are solitary creatures that communicate mainly through scent-marking rather than vocalization, although they occasionally emit a bark to warn of danger. A male bushbuck signals a challenge to another male by adopting a rigid walk, raising his head, arching his back, and lifting his tail. If the opponent is an equal match, he takes up a similar posture and the two circle one another; if the opponent submits, he keeps his head low and licks the dominant male.
Male Combat
Males are often combative. A male will first feign an attack by lowering his horns to the ground, but if he and his opponent are closely matched, they will lock horns and try to stab each other’s sides. While female bushbucks can be aggressive toward other females, they tend to fight much less than males.
Social Structure
Although bushbucks usually live alone, they occasionally spend time in pairs or even in small groups of adult females, adult females with young, or adult males. A unique social structure is exhibited by bushbucks In Uganda. There, female young remain with their mothers throughout their lives, and adult females organize themselves into matrilineal clans. Each related group maintains and defends a home range against unrelated females. Related females also engage in grooming and other social activities.
Breeding
Little is known about the mating system in bushbuck. Breeding takes place throughout the year with the peak during the rainy season in dry regions, with higher birth rates during the rainy season.
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During courtship, the male nuzzles and licks the female, strokes her back with his cheeks, and presses his head or neck against her. If the female accepts his advances, the male guards her from any other eager males.
Female bushbucks gestate for 24 to 35 weeks and usually bear a single calf, though occasionally they have twins. Females give birth in dense thickets, where the calves remain for up to four months while their mothers leave to graze. After giving birth the mother leaves her calf well hidden and visits only to nurse it. The young calf starts to come out with its mother during the day when it is about 4 months old.
A male’s horns begin to emerge at seven months. Males reach sexual maturity at ten months, but most do not breed until they are two years old.
Friends & Foes
It’s not unusual to find baboons and vervet monkeys hanging around bushbucks. These primates have learned that this antelope’s bark means a predator is near and it’s time to flee. In return, bushbucks benefit from the primates’ ability to detect predators from trees.
RW Safaris - Pete Hunting Bushbuck 2017
Conservation
Although there is no serious threat to bushbuck populations, some are being reduced by habitat destruction due to human activity. Bushbuck cause or are involved in a number of problems, so their populations are controlled in areas near domestic cattle.
According to the IUCN Red List, the total population size of bushbuck is around 1,340,000 individuals.
The main threat to bushbuck is habitat loss due to the unsustainable growth of agriculture, settlements, and roads.
Bushbuck Subspecies
The taxonomy of bushbuck has been contested, with bushbuck fractured into over 40 subspecies in the past. Hunters generally group the bushbuck into eight more or less regional categories:
- Cape bushbuck, in southern South Africa
- Limpopo bushbuck, in the Limpopo drainage
- Chobe, in the Zambezi and Chobe drainages
- East African, in Tanzania
- Nile, in the drainages of the Nile
- Harnessed bushbuck in Central and West Africa
- Abyssinian, found in Ethiopia
- Menelik’s bushbuck, found in the high country of Ethiopia
Individual bushbuck vary considerably. The harnessed bushbuck of Central and West Africa is generally the most brightly colored of all the bushbuck, with a “harness” of white stripes and spots on a very red background.
Donna and Craig Boddington with Donna’s Cape bushbuck.
Did you know?
Bushbucks are skilled swimmers!
