{"id":9333,"date":"2018-08-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-19T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/kruger-national-park-and-the-antelope\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T11:03:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T09:03:29","slug":"kruger-national-park-and-the-antelope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/kruger-national-park-news\/kruger-national-park-animals-guide\/kruger-national-park-and-the-antelope\/","title":{"rendered":"Kruger National Park and the Antelope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antelope in Kruger National Park<\/h2>\n

When visiting the Kruger National Park, everyone is always out to see the Big Five.\u00a0 Although the Big Five is the ultimate goal, there is a wide variety of antelope in the Kruger National Park, some of them in abundance and others a rare sighting. When on a Kruger Park day tour<\/a>, you are very likely to see just about all of these antelope:<\/h3>\n

Impala<\/h3>\n

On first arriving in the Kruger National Park, you will more than likely come across herds and herds of Impala.\u00a0\u00a0 The reason you will probably see Impala first is that there are over 130 000 adult Impala in the park at any given time.\u00a0 You will notice that only the rams have horns.\u00a0 Adults stand at about 1 metre and weigh roughly 80kg.\u00a0 These commonly found antelope can gracefully leap over 3-meter high fences and run at bursts of up to 80km\/h.\u00a0 Impala lives in herbs of up to 50, with a single ram having a harem of 10 ewes.<\/p>\n

Kudu<\/h3>\n

The Kudu is the animal that symbolises the Kruger National Park, with its impressive horns gracing the SANParks logo.<\/h4>\n

The humble Kudu is not too scarce in the Kruger National Park, and can be found in thick woodland areas, most commonly found in the southwestern foothills and woodland area of the Sabie River catchment area.\u00a0 Kudu does not have huge herds, preferring to stay in groups consisting of one dominant male with 3-5 females.\u00a0 As with the Impala, only the male kudu have horns.\u00a0 Kudu males can weigh up to 300kg and stand at 1.5 metres at shoulder height.\u00a0 There are only about 5000 in the Kruger National Park.<\/p>\n

Eland<\/h3>\n

The largest antelope in the Kruger National Park is the Eland,<\/strong> standing at 1.8 metres at the shoulder and weighing in at around 940kg.\u00a0 Regardless of its size, this amazing animal can jump over a 2-metre fence with ease and can run comfortably for long distances at a speed of about 20km\/h.\u00a0 They can run at 40km\/h for short bursts.\u00a0 The Eland is a gentle creature and will not even charge if it is cornered.\u00a0 Eland stays in small herds of 2-5 animals and they are rarely seen as there is only about 300 in the Kruger National Park.\u00a0 They can be found on the savannah plains or woodland areas throughout the Kruger National Park.<\/p>\n

Roan Antelope<\/h3>\n

Surely a good sighting in the Kruger National Park is the Roan Antelope.\u00a0 There are only about 70 Roan Antelope in the Kruger and they must not be confused with the very similar Sable Antelope.\u00a0 Roan Antelope are smaller than Sable and can be identified by a distinctive white eye and muzzle patch.\u00a0 Standing at 1.5 metres and weighing in at 300kg the Roan Antelope is actually an endangered species that rare move out of their territory.\u00a0 Should you be lucky enough to see them, you will notice that they also stay in herds of 2-5 animals in open grassland pockets within thick woodland.\u00a0 This is a very rare sighting.<\/p>\n

Sable Antelope<\/h3>\n

Sable Antelope are large animals with distinctive white and black face, with both sexes sporting stunning long curved horns.\u00a0 Adult Sable can have horns of up to 1.6 meters.\u00a0 These antelope can weigh about 270 kg and stand 1.6 metres.\u00a0\u00a0 Sable Antelope have a lifespan of 15 years and can run 57km\/h with ease.\u00a0 Sable graze on medium grasses and although they normally stay in smaller groups of 2-4, they do occasionally link up with other herds and then can be seen in groups of up to 30.\u00a0 The best place to see them is near Pretoriuskop or near Phalaborwa.<\/p>\n

Waterbuck<\/h3>\n

Commonly found around water, the aptly named Waterbuck is usually seen around Letaba.\u00a0 Waterbuck are well-built robust antelope easily identified by the white ring on the rump.\u00a0 Waterbuck will completely submerge itself in the water when pursued by predators.\u00a0\u00a0 Only the male Waterbuck have horns, which curve forward.\u00a0 They can weigh up to 250 kg and stand 1.2 metres at the shoulder.\u00a0 Their herds consist of between 10 and 30 animals.<\/p>\n

Tsessebe<\/h3>\n

The fastest antelope in the Kruger National Park is the Tsessebe that can run at a speed of 90 km\/h, outrunning most of its predators.\u00a0 There are approximately 200 Tsessebe in the Kruger National Park.\u00a0 The Tsessebe is red\/brown in colour and has shoulders that are higher than its hindquarters.\u00a0 Males can weigh in at 160kg and stand 1.3 metres high at shoulder height.\u00a0 Tsessebe are found in the sweetveld plains of the northern Kruger National Park.<\/p>\n

A Kruger Park day tour can yield\u00a0sightings of all kinds, with antelope, in particular, being the most commonly seen species. Explore the Kruger with Kurt Safari<\/a>.<\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antelope in Kruger National Park When visiting the Kruger National Park, everyone is always out to see the Big Five.\u00a0 Although the Big Five is the ultimate goal, there is a wide variety of antelope in the Kruger National Park, some of them in abundance and others a rare sighting. When on a Kruger Park […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-of-the-kruger-national-park"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}