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| Kirk's dik-dik |
The "antilopine" antelopes are, as their name might suggest, mostly typical examples of their kind. I suspect that when many people think of antelopes in general, gazelles and springbok are among the first to come to mind (although, to be fair, so might say, impalas). Traditionally, the antilopines have been divided into two main groups: the gazelle-like antelopes and the dwarf antelopes, with the latter surely being the less familiar to those of us living outside of Africa. Both groups have at least some species that don't fit the "typical" image of the subfamily. For the gazelle-like animals, that's probably the
gerenuk and its relative, the dibatag.
Among the dwarf antelopes, we have the dik-diks.
While some researchers subdivide them further, four species of dik-dik are widely recognised, at least three of which are reasonably common within their respective homelands. This may partly be because they are too small to be worth hunting for meat - although, inevitably. this still happens from time to time.
