The Tiny Ten Antilopes of Southern Africa

The Tiny Ten Antilopes of Southern Africa

Peter Flack refers to these small antelopes as Southern Africa “Tiny Ten” antelopes, a categorized group of pygmy antelopes that have been the pursuit and challenge of hunters from around the world. These Tiny Ten antelopes will take you to numerous habitats throughout Southern Africa in at least 3 different countries. Hunts full of challenges for the dedicated hunter obsessed by these small antelopes!


Tiny Ten Species
• Damara Dik-Dik
• Blue Duiker
• Common Duiker (also called Gray Duiker or Bush Duiker)
• Red Forest Duiker (also called Red Duiker, Natal Duiker or Natal Red Duiker)
• Cape Grysbok (also called Southern Grysbok)
• Sharp's Grysbok (also called Northern Grysbok)
• Klipspringer
• Oribi
• Steenbok (also known as Steinbuck or Steinbok)
• Suni




Dik-Dik Damara - Namibia


Duiker Blue - Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe


Duiker Common - Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe


Duiker Red Forest - Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe


Grysbok Cape - South Africa


Grysbok Sharp's - Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe


Klipspringer - Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe


Oribi - Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe


Steenbok - Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe


Suni - Mozambique, South Africa

Jerome,

Thanks for the lovely pictures of the small ten antelope trophies of Africa . Here in India we do have an elusive small sized antelope called Four-horned Antelope (also known as the Chousingha) , seems it is of the size of Oribi.

Monish


The Four-horned Antelope, Chousingha, from India

The Four-horned Antelope (Tetracerus quadricornis) also known as the Chousingha is an antelope found in open forest in South Asia. It is the only species currently classified in the genus Tetracerus. Its primary distribution is in India extending South of the Gangetic plains down to the state of Tamilnadu. Orissa constitutes the Eastern boundary of its distribution whereas the fragmented population at Gir is its westernmost distribution. A small population is also found in the drier forests of Nepal. Unique to the Indian subcontinent this interesting antelope is classed as vulnerable to extinction.


Male Four-horned Antelope, Chousingha, from India

Four-horned Antelope stand just over half a metre tall at the shoulder and weigh around 20 kilograms. Four-horned Antelope have a yellow-brown coat with the underside and insides of the legs being white. Its legs are thin and have a black stripe running down the forelegs.


Male and female Four-horned Antelope

Male Four-horned Antelope grow horns. Usually the animal has four; two between the ears and the second pair right on the front of the forehead. The male grows the first pair of horns at a young age of a few months and the second pair of horns indicates age and nutrition inputs to the animal and generally grow at an age of 14 to 15 months. The main pair, found just in front of the ears grow 5 to 12 cm / 2 to 4.8 inches long. Usually there is a second, shorter pair of horns on the foremost part of the forehead, reaching a length of only 2 to 4 cm / 0.8 to 1.6 inches. The horns are never shed, but may get damaged during fights.


Head of male Four-horned Antelope


Skull of male Four-horned Antelope

Four-horned Antelope live in dry deciduous forests and are solitary creatures. Four-horned Antelope are sedentary and may form territories, males tend to become very aggressive towards other males during mating season. Although many people say that these are mute animals, they can be heard while communicating either as an alarm call or to communicate with conspecifics. The call sounds like a husky 'phronk'.


Male Four-horned Antelope also called Chousingha

A shy, wary antelope, the chousingha dashes swiftly for cover at the first sign of danger. The gait of this antelope when walking or running is jerky. The four-horned antelope is rarely found far from a water, and must drink regularly in order to survive. Animals are sedentary, inhabiting more-or-less the same region throughout their lives. Whether territories are formed and defended has yet to be discovered. In the rut, males can be extremely aggressive to members of the same sex. Easily tamed when young, the chousingha is very delicate in captivity. Population densities are usually less then 0.5 animals per square kilometer.

Great photos... real good trophies among them. Love hunting these tiny monsters!

Great photos i am wanting to add a steenbok or a duiker on my hunt with Niel at Leeukop in October. These little guys are really cool and beautiful animals and some are real easy on the pocket book.

Thanks Monish for your contribution...thats a awesome 4 horn antelope!

I love to see pictures of the Tiny Ten. I also like the vaal rhebok!

Grey Rhebok (also called Grey Rhebuck, Vaal Rhebok or Vaalribbok) - South Africa

Great pictures of the pygmie antelopes! - Great response Monish I never heard of that and that was some interesting facts on the 4 horned antelope!!

I am going after I think 8 out of the ten this August , Great pictures I hope I am Lucky this Trip I like the Little Monsters.

Good luck with your pursuit Blaserman. I presume that you will be doing this in South Africa, how many regions and how many days of hunting are you in for.

Blaserman,

As we've all said, this is the place for information. I've never heard it put this way before, the Tiny
Ten. Sounds like a great adventure. Good luck.

I will be in three diffrent areas and if I have time I am trying to Harvest as many as I can in 8 days.
This was my main reason to come back this time . But also for Caracal with dogs. Maybe next time I would like to do the Tri fecta of Wildebeest , Black , Blue and Niassa.
I think with a lot of luck it might be able to be done.

I thought I'd bump this one back to the front of the line in the forums. It has some great pictures of the "Tiny Ten".

I took a steenbok on my first safari and I really want to add a duiker and klipspringer to my wall. Thanks for posting this.

I love these animals. I hope one day to be able to say I took all ten with a bow. Small animals but big trophys.