WorldWildMapWildlife atlas
Springbok
Field guide
mammal · NA

Springbok

Antidorcas marsupialis

Add photoLog sighting
Overview

Small, watchful, and given to sudden pronking displays.

The springbok is southern Africa's confetti: a slight, cinnamon-and-white gazelle, maybe 30 to 45 kilograms, that once migrated in herds so vast they took days to pass a farmhouse. The great treks are gone but the animal remains gloriously common, and it still does the thing that named it: pronking, a stiff-legged vertical bounce with back arched and a white crest of hair flared along the spine, part alarm, part fitness advertisement, possibly part joy. It handles the desert almost as well as a gemsbok, breeding on rain rather than season, and it feeds practically everything with claws or talons in Namibia, which makes a springbok herd the most reliable place to wait for drama.

Behaviour

Herds from dozens to thousands, endlessly nervous, endlessly watching. A ripple of raised heads at one edge of a herd is often your first sign of a predator.

Diet

Grazes fresh grass after rain, browses shrubs in the dry; like the gemsbok it can go without drinking when moisture-rich plants are available.

Photography

Pronking is burst-mode work: pre-focus on one animal at the herd's edge in the golden hour and hold the shutter when it starts. Backlit dust turns it cinematic.

Ethics

Lambs lie hidden alone in the open; a lamb without its mother is normal, not abandoned. Never approach one.

Where you'll find them

Generalised encounter areas, not exact locations. Each shape is a grid cell coloured by how likely the species is there.

  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 30 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 7 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 5 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 29 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 7 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 9 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 28 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 12 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 23 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 13 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 21 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 15 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 18 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 12 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 5 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 17 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 6 records · updated 1 day ago
    Very likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 15 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 8 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 13 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 10 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 12 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 12 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 12 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 11 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 11 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 11 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 6 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 10 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 5 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 10 records · updated 1 day ago
    Likely
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 9 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 8 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 7 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 6 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 6 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 6 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 5 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 5 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 5 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 5 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 5 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 5 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 4 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 4 records · updated 1 day ago
    Possible
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 4 records · updated 1 day ago
    Uncommon
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Uncommon
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Uncommon
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Uncommon
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Uncommon
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Uncommon
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Uncommon
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Uncommon
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Rare
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Rare
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Rare
  • Namibia
    10 km zone · medium confidence · 3 records · updated 1 day ago
    Rare
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Desert-adapted herds that survive on remembered water in some of the driest country in Africa.

Very likelyNA
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Very likelyNA
Black-backed Jackal
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Brown Hyena
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