Species profile
About the klipspringer
The klipspringer lives on rock and almost nowhere else. It walks on the blunt tips of its hooves, which gives it a tiny, rubbery contact patch and extraordinary grip on smooth stone, and it can stand with all four feet together on a surface the size of a saucer.
Its coat is unique among antelope: thick, brittle, hollow hairs that insulate against both mountain cold and radiated heat off the rock, and cushion a fall. In Tanzania it is a signature animal of the Serengeti kopjes, the Ngorongoro crater rim and Ruaha's rocky ridges.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Diurnal, and unusually willing to stand in the open on a high rock to survey its ground. Gives a sharp whistling alarm and bounds away over broken rock.
Social life
Monogamous, lifelong pairs holding a rocky territory. One partner nearly always keeps watch while the other feeds.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
Hooves that bear weight on their blunt tips, and a coat of hollow, brittle hairs found in no other antelope.
