Species profile
About the sable antelope
A mature sable bull is glossy black with a white belly and face markings and horns that arc backwards in a great scimitar curve, sometimes past 130 centimetres. Cows and young are a rich chestnut, so a herd shows two quite different colours.
Sable are miombo woodland animals, and Tanzania's southern and western parks — Nyerere, Ruaha, Katavi and the Mahale hinterland — are where to find them. Like the roan, sable are formidable in defence and have been recorded killing attacking predators with their horns.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Grazes in the cooler hours and drinks daily. Bulls fight on their knees with sweeping horn blows and will defend a herd against predators.
Social life
Herds of ten to thirty cows and calves under a dominant cow, attended by a territorial bull; young bulls form bachelor herds until they can hold ground.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
Scimitar horns in both sexes, longest in the bull, and a coat that darkens from chestnut to black as a bull matures.