page_title: Nilgai
section_title: Habitat and distribution
hierarchical_section_title: Nilgai / Habitat and distribution
caption_attribution_description: English: Grassland habitat
context_page_description: The nilgai or blue bull is the largest Asian antelope and is ubiquitous across the northern Indian subcontinent. The sole member of the genus Boselaphus, the species was described and given its binomial name by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1766. The nilgai stands 1–1.5 metres at the shoulder; males weigh 109–288 kilograms, and the lighter females 100–213 kilograms. A sturdy thin-legged antelope, the nilgai is characterised by a sloping back, a deep neck with a white patch on the throat, a short crest of hair along the neck terminating in a tuft, and white facial spots. A column of pendant coarse hair hangs from the dewlap ridge below the white patch. Sexual dimorphism is prominent – while females and juveniles are orange to tawny, adult males have a bluish-grey coat. Only males possess horns, 15–24 centimetres long.
  The nilgai is diurnal. The animals band together in three distinct kinds of groups: one or two females with young calves, three to six adult and yearling females with calves, and all-male groups with two to 18 members.
context_section_description: Nilgai prefer areas with short bushes and scattered trees in scrub forests and grassy plains. They are common in agricultural lands, but hardly occur in dense woods. In southern Texas, it roams in the prairies, scrub forests and oak forests. It is a generalist animal—it can adapt to a variety of habitats. Though sedentary and less dependent on water, nilgai may desert their territories if all water sources in and around it dry up. Territories in Texas are 0.6 to 8.1 square kilometres (0.23 to 3.13 sq mi) large.
  This antelope is endemic to the Indian subcontinent: major populations occur in India, Nepal and Pakistan, whereas it is extinct in Bangladesh. Significant numbers occur in the Terai lowlands in the foothills of the Himalayas; the antelope is abundant across northern India. The Indian population was estimated at one million in 2001. The nilgai were first introduced to Texas in the 1920s and the 1930s in a 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) large ranch near the Norias Division of the King Ranch, one of the largest ranches in the world. The feral population saw a spurt toward the latter part of the 1940s, and gradually spread out to adjoining ranches.
  Population densities show great geographical variation across India. Density can be as low as 0.23 to 0.34 individuals per km² in the Indravati National Park (Chhattisgarh) and 0.4 individuals per km² in the Pench Tiger Reserve (Madhya Pradesh) or as high as 6.60 to 11.36 individuals per km² and Ranthambhore National
  Park and 7 individuals per km² in Keoladeo National Park (both in Rajasthan). Seasonal variations were noted in the Bardiya National Park (Nepal) in a 1980 study; the density 3.2 individuals per km² during the dry season and 5 per km² in April (the start of the dry season). In southern Texas, densities were found to be nearly 3–5 individuals per km² in 1976.
  Historic notes mention nilgai in southern India, but these may have been feral:
  I believe that the Coimbatore and Salem collectorates are almost the only places in Southern India, in which nil-gai are to be found. It is difficult to account for the animals being thus so widely divided from their usual haunts unless as has been generally supposed, these Southern specimens are the progeny of a semi-domesticated herd, which, at some by-gone period, had escaped from the preserve of a native potentate.
  — Andrew Cooke McMaster (Notes on Jerdon's Mammals of India, 1871)
caption: in the Grassland
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "5184", "Image ImageLength": "3456", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 550D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2017:04:02 21:12:11", "Image Artist": "Dhaval Vargiya", "Image Copyright": "BirdGuard.Blogspot.in", "Image ExifOffset": "336", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "882", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4518", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:10:20 05:59:50", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:10:20 05:59:50", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "870723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "331919/62500", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "21/4", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "87/2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "500", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "58", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "58", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "901", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}