Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Klipspringer

Oreotragus oreotragus

Description:

Reaching approximately 58 cm (22 inches) at the shoulder, klipspringers are smaller than most other antelopes. They stand on the tips of their hooves and can fit all four hooves on a piece of cliff the size of a Canadian dollar coin (Loonie), roughly 30 mm in diameter. Male klipspringer horns are usually about 10–15 cm (4–6 inches) long. Female klipspringers in eastern African populations also have horns. With a thick and dense, speckled "salt and pepper" patterned coat of an almost olive shade, klipspringers blend in well with the koppies (rock outcrops) on which they can usually be found. However, their agility on rocks and crags is so extreme that their most dangerous enemies are eagles and humans, so camouflage is not as important to them as to most other antelope

Habitat:

The klipspringer lives from the Cape of Good Hope, where it is found in mountain fynbos, through the rest of Southern Africa, where it is found in rocky koppies in woodland and savanna, north to East Africa and into the highly mountainous highlands of Ethiopia.

Notes:

Klipspringers are preyed upon by leopards, caracals, eagles and humans.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

No Comments

Jared Hersch
Spotted by
Jared Hersch

Beaufort West Local Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa

Spotted on Nov 30, 2014
Submitted on Dec 7, 2014

Related Spottings

Klipspringer Klipspringer Klipspringer Klipspringer

Nearby Spottings

Four-striped grass mouse Dideric Cuckoo Southern Rock Agama Gemsbok

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team