Heraldic Panel

An antelope is an extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae, which are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Russia. Antelopes do not form a monophyletic group, as some antelopes are more closely related to other bovid groups, such as bovines, goats, and sheep, than to other antelopes. A stricter grouping, known as the true antelopes, includes only the genera Gazella, Nanger, Eudorcas, and Antilope. One North American mammal, the pronghorn or "pronghorn antelope", is colloquially referred to as the "American antelope", despite the fact that it belongs to a different family (Antilocapridae) than the true Old-World antelopes; pronghorn are the sole extant member of a lineage that once included many species which went extinct in the prehistoric period. Although antelopes are sometimes misidentified as "deer" (cervids), the groups are only distantly related. While antelopes are found in abundance in Africa, there is only one living African deer species: the Barbary stag of North Africa. By comparison, numerous deer species are found in regions of the world with few or no antelope species present, such as throughout Southeast Asia, Europe and all of the Americas. This is likely due to competition over shared resources, as deer and antelope fill a virtually identical ecological niche in their respective habitats. Countries like India, however, have large populations of endemic deer and antelope, with the different species generally keeping to their own "niches" with minimal overlap. Unlike deer, in which males of most species sport bone antlers that are shed and regrown annually, antelope horns are bone encased in keratin and grow steadily, never falling off. If a horn is broken, it will either remain broken or take years to partially regenerate, depending on the species.