Sable Antelope

The sable antelope is found in portions of East Africa and northern southern Africa and a small portion of Angola. There are an estimated 75,000 with 50% of those on protected land and 25% on private land. A subspecies with larger horns, known as the giant sable, lives in Angola and there are only an estimated 200 to 400 of them left (they were particularly devastated by the Angolan civil war). 

A beautiful black male sable antelope.

A female in a similar pose is much lighter in color.

The sable antelope has a thick neck and tough skin, a well-developed and upright mane on the neck and a short mane on the throat. Females and young sable are chestnut to dark brown in color and males darken and turn black after three years. Some southern populations of females also turn black. They are white on belly, cheek and chin and have a black stripe down the muzzle. Both sexes have ringed horns that arch backwards that are larger in males. They look very similar to the roan antelope, particularly the females and young, but tend to be darker in color and have slightly different face markings. 

Some younger sable antelope with short horns mix with some adults.

I was very excited to see sable antelope at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas. I was really hoping to see them in Kenya when we visited last year, but unfortunately did not. At Fossil Rim they were congregated in several large groups and we were not able to get any close to our car windows to feed them. 

This sable antelope was near our car but not interested in our food as it had a huge stack of hay to concentrate on.