|
|
Klipspringer Female Sitting, small on Blackwood base
4cm Average
101-722 ...... 126 USD
|
Although I was familiar with Klipspringers in the hills and kopjies of my native Matabeleland, it was not until I read about them in the 1987 Guinness Book of Records that I was really charmed by these "different" antelope.
"The most devoted couple in the animal world. Klipspringer antelope never stray more than five meters from one another." - Guinness Book of Records, 1987.
The Klipspringer, or Ngururu as it is called by the Shona, plays a very important and significant role in the tribal legend of Zimbabwe. The paramount chiefs of this country hold its cunning, its courage and its devotion to its mate in the highest regard.
A compact little antelope, weighing around 15 kilograms and standing about 70cm high, the Klipspringer has a speckled grey-brown coat, black fur just above the hooves and a short tail. The male of the couple can be distinguished by its widely spaced horns, which curve slightly forward.
The Klipspringer is perfectly suited to a life on rocky terrain, for its greyish colouring is the ideal camouflage and its small blunt hooves provide a very sure footing. Its coat too is special and is quite unlike that of other antelopes, - being of quite springy fur, which protects them from any bumps and bruises sustained in its unforgiving habitat.
They mark their territory by rubbing scent, from a gland in front of their eye, onto twigs and sticks. These antelope are browsers and feed on leaves, berries, fruit, pods and succulents. They produce a single lamb once a year.
|
 
|
