The sable antelope is a unique large species with a vibrant coat and sweeping horns. When booking a safari in the southern part of Kruger Park, you have a good chance of encountering sable antelope.
Need Advice?It is a large antelope species. They can be identified by looking at their horns, curved backward, and the sparkling, dark black color of their fur, except for their belly and whole face, excluding their nose, which is all white. Its nose is black, giving its face a very distinctive look.
Sable antelope inhabit scattered areas within Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, and Tanzania. Their distribution in Zimbabwe and Mozambique is extensive. In South Africa occur in Kruger and other national parks as well as private game reserves.
The southern sable still has many robust populations in Southern Africa and is not endangered. The royal Sable of Angola is critically endangered, while the Zambian sable found in Zambia and Tanzania is vulnerable. Overall this species is not endangered or threatened by endangerment and has a population of around 75 000.
The habitats in which they thrive are the same as most antelope species, grassland, and savanna areas, where they eat mainly grass and leaves that are medium-sized and low enough for them to reach. In the Kruger National Park, they occur in the northern and southern parts of the park. In Botswana, the further north you travel, the denser the population generally becomes. They are picky when it comes to what a habitat should offer. According to recent studies, sables prefer tall sweet, and sour grass, abundant drinking water, sandy soil, scattered trees, and small shrubs within their habitat.
Like almost all herbivores, they organize themselves into herds, with an average size between 10 and 30 individual calves and females, all led by a single male Young or outcasted males form herds of their own for protection and a better chance of survival. These herds are called bachelor groups and usually consist of as many as 12 individual males. At around three years of age, all the young males in a herd are exiled and join these bachelor groups. Females, on the other hand, remain within the same herd.
We recommend the following National Parks and Private Reserves for the best chances of spotting the sable on safari game drives and bush walks.
They are most active during the day, like most herbivores, grazing, and browsing. The only real quarrels they have with one another are when males fight for supremacy within a herd. Bulls do this by both going down onto their knees and using their long, curved horns to attack one another, a unique way of fighting that results in almost no physical harm for either contender. A position of power also opens up when a large herd splits in two, and the new herd that is formed needs a bull to lead them. Older males, roughly over ten years, usually become solitary males living nomadic lives.
The dominant male mates with all the females in the herd, usually seasonally. It ensures calves are born in the rainy season and have a better chance of surviving. Individual sables only start mating after reaching sexual maturity, when they are 2 – 3 years of age. Their gestation period is around nine months. A female will usually give birth to only one calf and will continue to produce milk as the calf’s primary source of nutrients until the calf is eight months old.
The sable's main predators are spotted hyenas, leopards, crocodiles, lions, and even packs of wild dogs. Unlike other antelope species, the sable isn't afraid to fight back in some cases, sometimes even mildly or fatally injuring its attacker. Smaller predators, such as a single hyena, hunting dog, or a jackal pestering a herd, are quickly chased away. Their long, rounded horns serve them well, with the sharp tip at the back able o fatally injure predators.
