Bushbuck or waterbuck? Nyala or kudu? Impala or springbok?
Old World ruminants from the Bovidae family that are not bovines, sheep, goats, deer, or giraffes are antelope.
There are 91 species of antelope, spread through Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian sub-continent.
Deer, on the other hand, are from the Cervidae family, and native to all continents except Australia and Antartica. There is only one native African deer, the Barbary stag.
Learning to differentiate between similar species by their horns or stripes or spots or eye patches is one of wildlife’s challenges.
Impala, Kafue, Zambia.
The rare walia ibex, in Ethiopia's Simien Mountains, where most of the remaining 500 live.
Also in Etosha, I believe this is a dik-dik.
Out playing in the puddles in Etosha, a springbok.
Big eared and doey eyed, kudu gather around a Namibian waterhole.
Not one we saw many of on our travels, red hartbeest in Nambia's Etosha NP.
Kudu and friends wary of lions and hyenas nearby.
An oryx makes break at an Etosha waterhole. Better safe than sorry in Africa.
A large family of sambar deer in the early morning mist, Mae Ping National Park, between Chiang Mai and Bangkook, Thailand.
A sambar deer bathes in Khao Yai National Park, blissfully ignorant of me and my coffee.
Barking deer are commonly seen in most parts of Khao Yai National Park.
Kafue National Park, about the size of Belgium, islocated in the centre of Zambia. Not only impala stroll through the campsites, but elephants and lions come by regularly, too.
Ranthambore National Park is a tough place to be a spotted deer. It is one of India's best tiger parks.
In Namibia's Namib Rand, a lone oryx is dwarfed by the towering dunes.
Blesbok on the fringes of Eswatini's capital Mbabane, in Malolotja Nature Reserve.
Eland can weigh up to 900kgs, pretty big for an antelope.
Kudu, Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou NP.
Male kudu, up close and personal.
Waterbuck gather in Mana Pools, Zimbabwe.
A waterbuck stares straight down the lense.