THE KLIPSPRINGER 
OREOTRAGUS SALTATOR 
C NE of the best -known and most widely distributed of all 
k the smaller African antelopes, the klipspringer or rock 
K jumper, is found in most, though by no means in all, 
W suitable localities from the neighbourhood of Cape 
* Agulhas in the south to the mountains of Abyssinia in 
the north, and from Somaliland in the east to Nigeria in 
the west. Wide breaks, however, occur in its range which cannot always 
be accounted for by the absence of hills. For instance, although the 
numerous ranges of rocky hills and all the isolated kopjes scattered over 
the country on both sides of the Northern Gwas N’yiro River, between 
Archer’s Post and the Lorian Swamp, would appear to be eminently 
suited to its habits, the klipspringer is entirely absent from them. 
In height, male klipspringer s stand about twenty inches at the shoulder 
in South Africa, the females being somewhat smaller. Over the greater part 
of their range the males alone carry horns, which are usually from three 
to four inches in length; but in certain portions of British and German 
East Africa the majority of the females are also horned, the horns being 
somewhat slighter and shorter than those of the males.* The horns of the 
klipspringer stand straight up from the head, and are usually very sharp 
and ringed from the base upwards for half their length. The hoofs are 
rather long, but that portion of them on which the animal stands is so 
small and contracted that when all four feet are placed close together, as 
they often are on a small projection of rock, they would scarcely cover a 
penny piece. In colour klipspringers vary from a greeny grey to a 
greeny yellow. Each individual hair is stiff and spiny, and very lightly 
attached to the skin, so that immediately after death a klipspringer skin 
can be scraped or plucked clean of hair with the greatest ease. The 
lightness and elasticity of klipspringer hair — each hair being hollow and 
filled with air — makes it very suitable for stuffing cushions or saddles, 
and in South Africa there is a great demand for it for such purposes. 
In addition to the typical klipspringer of South Africa, many 
geographical races, which only differ from it, or are supposed to differ 
* Female Klipspringers, carrying horns, are occasionally found in South Africa. In 1904 a female of this small 
antelope, bearing horns, was shot in the Hex River Mountains, Cape Colony, by Mr W. Graham. 
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