Sable Antelope

Hippotragus niger

Very Easy (Polygynous)

The **Sable Antelope** (*Hippotragus niger*) is a mid-sized African ungulate featured in the Standard Edition of *Planet Zoo*.

## Zoopedia Description

### General

**Population in the Wild:** 48,000

The sable antelope (or Hippotragus niger) is a species of ungulate that lives in South-Eastern Africa. They have long, notched horns that curve backwards from their face, a tan-to-black coat with a white underbelly, chin and throat, as well as white tear-marks on their face. Males are larger, darker and have longer horns than females. Both sexes graze and browse on the savannah, preferring lightly wooded areas to completely open ones.

The species is not endangered and is seen in large numbers throughout its range. However, the amount of space available to them has declined - their natural habitat having been reduced by mankind's urban expansion, which has destroyed grazing lands and turned large areas of savannah into farmland. The giant sable antelope subspecies is classed as critically endangered. Additionally, sable antelope are hunted for their distinctive horns, not to mention vulnerable to diseases spread by the tsetse fly.

### Social

The sable antelope is a social herd species and in the wild live in two types of groups: in breeding groups of related females, their young, and one unrelated dominant male; or in bachelor herds of young males who have not yet acquired a harem of females.

### Reproduction

Dominant males acquire and defend a territory, which females and their offspring will come to forage. As they do, he will join their group. 8 to 9 months after mating with a receptive female, she will leave her herd to give birth in isolation, with the newborn calf remaining hidden for the first 4 weeks of its life. After this period, it will rejoin the group to forage and graze, weaning at 8 months and maturing sexually at 18 months. However, the sexually mature sable antelopes are unlikely to reproduce until much older.

Females remain with their mother's group and likely have their first calf at 2.5 years old, whereas males will be ousted from their family at approximately 3, at which point they will join a bachelor herd of other young males. After a few more years, a male can become dominant in his bachelor herd. This usually occurs at around 5 or 6 years of age, at which point the male will leave to establish his own territory and acquire his own female herd.

## Animal Care

 FEEDING STATIONS
 FOOD ENRICHMENT
Grazing Ball Feeder · Hanging Grazer Feeder · Small Barrel Feeder
Grab Ball · Herb Scent Marker · Rubbing Pillar · Scots Pine/Tamarind Scratching Tree

## Trivia

### Zoopedia Fun Facts

* The females have strong hierarchies within their herd, with the alpha female being the strongest, healthiest individual. They are also hostile towards new female group members.
* In the wild, sable antelope chew bones to gain minerals from them.
* Sable antelope get darker as they get older. The darkness of the coat often indicates seniority of group members, with alpha females and males being dark brown to black in colour.
* Young males will often play fight as practice and older males will challenge each other by butting heads and pushing each other with their horns, but fights rarely become violent.
* Sable antelopes do not flee from predators but stand their ground, often attacking with their horns. They have been known to kill lions.