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Blackbuck
India's own antelope — a spiral-horned, black-and-white male famous for its blazing speed across the open plains.
How to spot it
A slender antelope; the dominant male is boldly two-toned — dark brown to black above, white below, with white eye-rings and long, ringed, spiralling horns. Females and young males are fawn-coloured and usually hornless.
Where it lives
The open grasslands, scrub and farmland of India, from Rajasthan and Gujarat to the southern plains. It likes wide, flat country where it can see danger coming and simply outrun it.
What it eats
A grazer that feeds mainly on grasses and low herbs, moving onto crops at the field edge. It is active largely by day.
Behaviour & life
One of the fastest animals in India, it bounds and sprints away from danger across the open. Males hold small display territories and gather harems of females, and herds can be large where the land is protected.
In India
Protected under Schedule I and classed as Least Concern, though it vanished from many areas as grasslands were ploughed. It carries deep cultural and religious significance, is a state animal in parts of India, and thrives at sites like Velavadar in Gujarat.
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