Compared to some mammals, such as carnivores (meat-eaters) and primates (apes, monkeys, and humans), antelopes are not noted for high intelligence.
This trait is partly explained by their plant-eating lifestyle: Because their food cannot run away, they do not need to be quick-witted or resourceful to track it down. However, antelopes still display complex patterns of behavior, although much of it is instinctive rather than learned.
Antelope Behaviour
In open habitats, antelopes run a high risk of predation (being preyed upon). To survive they use several kinds of defensive strategy, including living in herds. Herd living ensures that many pairs of eyes and ears are on the alert for danger. Herd living also gives individuals a better chance of avoiding attack, because predators can choose from many potential targets.
When danger threatens, antelopes behave in characteristic ways. Paradoxically, many species, particularly gazelles, walk toward potential enemies, such as lions or cheetahs, when they first come into view. This behavior is not as reckless as it sounds, because it alerts the herd and allows the antelopes to assess the threat that they face. If the approaching animals do turn out to be predators, gazelles keep them under constant surveillance, always at the ready to run. The decision to start running is based on the type of predator and its distance. Gazelles will permit lions to come within 200 m (650 ft), because they instinctively know that a hunting lion prefers to stay hidden while it stalks its victim and a visible lion is unlikely to launch an attack. Cheetahs, which are superb sprinters, pose more of a threat—gazelles will often start to run when cheetahs are still over 800 m (0.5 mi) away.
Antelopes communicate with one another using a variety of sounds. Dik-diks, for example, whistle when alarmed, a habit that alerts other animals to danger and makes dik-diks unpopular with hunters. But for antelopes generally, sight is a much more important form of communication. They indicate their mood by their posture, and also by the way they move. When they are excited or alarmed, many medium-sized antelopes bounce up and down on all four legs, keeping their legs stretched out straight. This behavior, known as pronking or stotting, acts as an alarm display. Some biologists theorize that stotting also communicates a message to predators, showing that individual antelopes are fit and alert and therefore not worth pursuing.
In addition to visual displays, antelopes use scent signals to communicate. Scent signals have the advantage that they can linger for many days. Antelopes that live in herds have glands in their hooves that leave a scented record of their movements. Antelopes use these scented tracks to find their way back to the herd if they accidentally become separated from it.
Antelopes that live in forests tend to stay in the same area all their lives, but species that live in open habitats often migrate to feed and breed. The most famous of these migrations are carried out by gnus, which live in the plains and open woodlands of eastern and southern Africa. In some places gnus are sedentary, but in others, such as Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, gnus journey between two home ranges—one used during the dry season and the other during the wet season, when rain produces a fresh crop of grass. Migration can be risky, particularly when it involves crossing crocodile-infested rivers, but it does guarantee that the gnus have the best supply of food at different times of the year.
