Handsome, endemic and non-athletic – bontebok and blesbok

BBontebok and blesbok are two similar but distinct antelope species that came close to extinction. These colourful beasts – especially the bontebok – owe their continued existence to a few stubborn landowners, some fences and one of the first examples of South African conservation. 

The bontebok has a rather special place in South African conservation. 

Firstly, it is found nowhere else in the world, being endemic to South Africa’s Cape fynbos. 

Secondly, it was the first antelope to be conserved. Why? Simply because bontebok, like their cousins the blesbok, can’t jump. They are something of an anomaly among the more acrobatic eland, kudu, springbok and impala. Bontebok and blesbok can be confined with normal sheep fencing. 

In fact, the fence that saved the last 17 bontebok on Earth still stands near the southern Cape town of Arniston. It was built by a farmer, Alexander van der Bijl, in 1837. 

In those days hunting the last of a species was considered an achievement rather than a disgrace, so that fenced sanctuary literally stood between the bontebok and extinction. The last blue buck had been shot in 1799 and the extinction of the quagga came in 1883. 

Bontebok numbers hovered in the low hundreds for many years, until the 1930s when a national park outside Swellendam was declared specifically to conserve it and the Bontebok National Park was born. Even then, it was problematic, and it was only when a new site was chosen, and they were also translocated to other parks, that the bontebok began to thrive. From 17, their numbers have risen to around 3 500 today. 

The bontebok (which means spotted or patchwork buck in Afrikaans) is closely related to blesbok (which means blaze buck because of the broad white stripe down its nose) and is easily confused with it. In fact, bontebok are thought to have evolved from a group of blesbok isolated in the fynbos biome, possibly because of climatic conditions. 

Blesbok, by contrast, are adapted to life in the high grasslands and Karoo. While never quite as threatened as the bontebok, blesbok numbers also sank perilously low in the early 1900s. Also originally endemic to South Africa, blesbok are now distributed as far north as the Zambezi River, thanks to human ‘interference’. 

Their colouration is similar, with white bellies and legs, white blazes on their faces and reddish-brown bodies, shading to a purplish black. 

The male blesbok and bontebok can be particularly entertaining to watch. They make a point of invading each other’s territories and go through a whole sequence of actions meant to test dominance. 

They start with head shaking and tail swishing, standing parallel with ears outspread, moving through the more threatening ground-horning and chasing one another. 

Very rarely do they actually kneel down, lock horns and do actual battle.