Skull short and broad; basal length in an adult male 4.4 inches, greatest breadth 3.15, muzzle to orbit 2.4.
Horns attaining a length of 3½ or 4 inches.
Hab. South and East Africa, north to Abyssinia, in mountainous and rocky districts.
The Klipspringer, as this little Antelope is universally called, although first made known to us by the Dutch settlers at the Cape, is also found in suitable localities throughout Eastern Africa as far north as Abyssinia. It derives its appropriate name of “Cliff-springer” or “Rock-jumper” from its habits of jumping about amongst the rocky eminences of the hills in which it is usually met with. Amongst the early authorities on natural history usually quoted Buffon appears to be the first to have given a description and figure of this Antelope. In the Supplement to his ‘Histoire Naturelle des Animaux Quadrupèdes,’ published in 1782, he calls it the “Klipspringer ou Sauteur des Rochers,” and figures it from a drawing communicated to him by the Forsters, in whose days (1772–74) the Klipspringer was to be met with on the rocks of Vals Bay in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town. On Buffon’s Klipspringer Zimmermann founded his Antilope oreotragus in 1783, and Boddaert his Antilope saltatrix in 1785. As we use Oreotragus for the generic name we will adopt saltator, the masculine form of saltatrix, as the specific appellation of this Antelope.
Harris, in his well-known ‘Portraits of the Game Animals of South Africa,’ gives us a picture of the Klipspringer on the same plate as that of the Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra), which in his time was still found in the high mountains of the Cape Colony, and supplies the following particulars:—
“During the pursuit of the Zebra, which was confined to the most steep and elevated parts of this rugged range, I repeatedly fell in with and killed the Klipspringer. Once extremely abundant in the Cape Colony, it is now daily becoming more rare—the venison being deservedly reputed among the first that the country affords, whilst the elastic hair is sought above all other materials for the stuffing of saddles. Long, padded, and standing out vertically from the side, it resembles moss in texture, and constitutes, as in the chamois of the Alps, a natural cushion to protect the animal from the contusions to which its habits must render it constantly liable. No antelope possesses more completely the lively gambolling manners of the young kid—none bound with greater force or precision from rock to rock, or clear the yawning abyss with more fearless activity. Found usually in pairs among the most precipitous rocks, and inaccessible summits, the Klipspringer would appear in Southern Africa to supply the place of the ibex and chamois; and such is the rigidity of its stiff pasterns, and the singular formation of the high cylindrical hoof, that even when at speed there is no track left but by the tips of the toes, whereas every other class of ruminant would leave, under similar circumstances, some traces also of the spurious hoofs. The most trifling obliquity or ruggedness of surface thus affording a secure foothold, the little animal, ‘whose house is on the hill-top,’ entertains a sense of self-security which oftentimes proves its ruin. Looking down from some craggy pinnacle, as if in derision of the vain efforts of its pursuer, it presents to the rifle the fairest of targets; and tumbled headlong from its elevated perch, pays the penalty of its rashness. Missed, it bounds from ledge to ledge, on which the human eye can mark no footing—balancing at one moment upon the giddy verge of a precipice where barely sufficient space exists for the hoof to rest—at the next casting itself recklessly into the bottomless chasm, and pitching, as if by miracle, upon some projecting peak, where all four feet appear to be gathered into the space of one. Another spring, and, clear of the intervening gulf, it is nimbly scaling yon perpendicular barrier, that resembles the wall of a lofty citadel—and now it is sweeping securely away over the naked and polished tablets of granite which pave the summits of those elevated regions.”
Modern authorities on the Mammals of South Africa inform us that the Klipspringer, although not met with in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, is still fairly common in certain districts of the broken and mountainous interior. In the hills about Kanya and Molopolole and in Bechuanaland, Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington tell us it is plentiful. The same is the case in the Zoutspansberg, Waterberg, and Murchison Ranges, in the Transvaal, and throughout the broken portions of Matabeleland. Mr. Selous speaks of it as being “particularly plentiful in the curious detached stony hills of Matabeleland and Mashonaland.” In Natal Mr. W. H. Drummond tells us that he only found the Klipspringer on the Drachensberg Range, and, beyond the limits of the colony, on the precipitous faces of the Bombo Mountains.
Mr. Selous did not meet with this Antelope north of the Zambesi, but we have excellent authorities for its existence far beyond that limit. Peters, in his ‘Reise nach Mossambique,’ has recorded its occurrence on the Caruera Mountains near Tette. Sir John Kirk found it “singly or in pairs near the Kebrabassa Rapids of the Zambesi and on the Murchison Rapids of the Shiré;” and Mr. Whyte has sent us specimens from Mount Milanji, in Nyasaland, where it is found in pairs among rocks and on the higher ridges. It is also met with on Mount Zomba.
On Lake Nyasa Mr. Crawshay tells us that the Klipspringer is known as the “Chinkoma,” and is common in rough mountainous country. He praises its venison as “excellent,” and says that the skins are much prized by the hill-tribes of Nyasaland, who convert them into bags for carrying bread. Passing further northwards into German East Africa, we find this Antelope recorded as found in various mountainous localities. Böhm met with it on the Venusberg in Ugunda and Böhmer near Mpapwe, while Stühlmann and Emin Pasha obtained specimens at Bussissi on the Victoria Nyanza. Herr Oscar Neumann found the Klipspringer near the top of Mount Gurui in Irangi (see ‘Geographical Journal,’ vi. p. 275). Even the extreme summit of this extinct volcano is clothed with a vegetation of alpine flowers and short grass which supplies it with subsistence. In British East Africa, Mr. Jackson informs us, the Klipspringer is met with only in the rocky broken ground on the slopes of the hills and large “earth-boils” between Teita and Turkqueh, where there is no other game to be found.
In Somaliland, Captain Swayne tells us, the Klipspringer is known to the natives as the “Alakud.” Here they live in the most rugged mountains, “poising themselves on the large boulders, and leaping from rock to rock.” Finally, in Abyssinia we come to the most northern limit of this Antelope. The great explorer Rüppell was the first to meet with it in the rocky mountains of this country, and states that his specimens were undoubtedly identical with the Cape form, although attempts were subsequently made to separate the Abyssinian form under the barbarous name Antilope saltatrixoides. Heuglin also records the existence of the Klipspringer in the mountains of Abyssinia at elevations above 3000 feet. Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., who accompanied the Abyssinian Expedition of 1867–68, gives us the following particulars of this species:—“The Klipspringer is common on the more rocky of the Abyssinian hills, from a height of about 3000 feet above the sea, or rather less, to 8000 or 9000. In the pass below Senafé, and in that leading from Ain to the Anseba, by the valley of the Lebka, these little Antelopes were frequently seen, and they were common on some of the rocky precipices on the flanks of the great valleys around Senafé, Guna-Guna, Fokada, &c., usually solitary or in pairs. When alarmed they frequently perch on the very highest rocks, their agility in leaping from crag to crag being remarkable.”