ANTELOPE

any of numerous Old World grazing or browsing mammals belonging to the family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), which also includes sheep, goats, and cattle. The pronghorn of North America, though a member of the family Antilocapridae, is also sometimes referred to as an antelope. The term has no precise zoological definition. Antelopes are even-toed, hoofed mammals that typically are swift, slender, and graceful plains dwellers. Most are African; the others, except for the North American pronghorn, are Eurasian. Antelopes range in shoulder height from 25 cm (10 inches) in the royal antelope (Neotragus pygmaeus) of Africa to 175 cm (70 inches) in the giant eland (Taurotragus derbianus), also of Africa. The male antelope, and sometimes the female, bears distinctive, backwardly curved horns. The horns vary in form, some being short and spikelike, as in the duikers (Cephalophus and Sylvicapra); some spirally twisted, as in the kudu (Tragelaphus); and some long and lyre-shaped, as in the impala (Aepyceros). The Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), the giant sable antelope (Hippotragus niger variani), and other antelopes are almost extinct. For information on related animals, see duiker; eland; impala; kudu; oryx; pronghorn; royal antelope; sable antelope.