Kobus | African antelope, waterbuck, reedbuck (2024)

Kobus, genus of antelopes, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), containing about six species—the waterbucks and lechwes, the kob, and the puku.

Members of this genus are native to Africa south of the Sahara. They usually live in herds and are generally found near water, in such places as plains, woodlands, swamps, and flood plains. Shoulder height ranges from 75–100 centimetres (30–39 inches) in the puku (Kobus vardoni) to about 130 cm in the common (K. ellipsiprymnus) and defassa (K. defassa) waterbucks. Males of all species have long, heavily ridged horns that curve backward and then upward.

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The waterbucks are shaggy-haired, coarse-coated animals; the lechwes are short-nosed swamp dwellers with long hooves and long tails; and the kob (K. kob) is a graceful antelope with a short, sleek coat. The puku resembles the kob but has longer hair. Coat colour varies among these animals. Some, such as the puku, are brownish; some, such as the Uganda kob (K. k. thomasi) are reddish brown; others, such as the common waterbuck, are grayish. In some forms, among them the black and Nile lechwes (K. leche smithemani and K. megaceros), the male is dark blackish brown and the female reddish brown. Markings on these antelopes include patches of white, such as a white ring on the rump of the common waterbuck and black markings on the legs, as in the kob.