The Nile Lechwe or white-necked moor ante­lope is an Afri­can ante­lope from the genus Water­buck. They are also cal­led Mrs. Gray’s Water­buck. This was the name of the wife of the zoo­lo­gist, who descri­bed this ante­lope spe­cies for the first time. The Nile Lechwe is a strong marsh ante­lope with a long coat. If you com­pare them with other spe­cies, this ante­lope spe­cies has a short face, while the hoo­ves are excep­tio­nally long. They are con­s­i­de­red end­an­ge­red with popu­la­tion dec­rea­sing.

Surely you are won­de­ring where this ante­lope got its name from? The name “Nil­gai” is com­po­sed of an Indian and an Eng­lish word: “nil” means “blue” and “gai” comes from the Eng­lish “cow”. The Eng­lish name “blue bull” allu­des to the steel blue color of full-grown bulls. The Nil­gai ante­lope is an Indian ante­lope spe­cies.

The Nyala belongs toge­ther with Sita­tunga and Kudu to the ante­lope group of the “Forest bucks”. They like to live in the bus­hes and near water. Nyalas are com­mon in the wild in Mozam­bi­que, Zim­b­abwe and nor­theas­tern South Africa. In addi­tion, they were intro­du­ced to natio­nal parks in Bots­wana and South Africa, where they were ori­gi­nally not native. The Nyala was long con­s­i­de­red one of the rarest ante­lope spe­cies, which remains to be furt­her exp­lo­red. Strict pro­tec­tive mea­su­res have hel­ped to res­tore stocks.

The Roan ante­lope lives south of the Sahara in several sub­s­pe­cies. It rea­ches a length of up to 220 centi­me­ters and a shoul­der height of up to 160 centi­me­ters. Their horns are cur­ved back­wards and cur­led to the top. The Roan ante­lope has dra­wings on its face, which are cal­led facial mask in ani­mals. Com­pa­red to other ante­lope spe­cies, they have very large ears.

The Sable ante­lope belongs to the genus Hip­po­tra­gus with the extinct blu­e­buck and the roan ante­lope. You can find them from Kenya across the step­pes of East Africa to Sou­thern Africa. The sable ante­lope is one of the most impres­sive ante­lope spe­cies ever. Howe­ver, when irri­ta­ted, they can become quite aggres­sive and dan­ge­rous.

You will imme­dia­tely recog­nize why the sci­mi­tar-hor­ned oryx has this name: Anyone who sees this power­ful ani­mal, mar­vels at the very long horns bent back­wards. In the males, these can be up to 150 inches long!

The Sita­tunga live in the swamp and in the water in wes­tern and sou­thern Africa. For food they choose aquatic plants, reed and fresh gras­ses. Sita­tunga have wide hoo­ves that carry them well over muddy ground. On hard ground, howe­ver, they are cum­ber­some. They swim excel­lently and the­re­fore like to escape into the water.

Wil­de­beest belong to the genus of Afri­can ante­lopes. They live toge­ther in large herds and with other ante­lope spe­cies and zebras. There are two types of wil­de­beest: the white-tai­led gnu (living in South Africa) and the blue wil­de­beest (South and East Africa). In the park you will dis­co­ver the blue wil­de­beest. These wil­de­beests reach a height of 150 centi­me­ters with 180 to 250 kilo­grams of weight. They love fresh grass and can safely find the areas where it has been rai­ning.