Nyala Photographs by Yvonne van der Mey

A very odd but beautiful looking antelope, which is not known by a lot of people, and not seen a lot either. Not because they are very rare, but because they appear mainly in the far north of Kruger Park, where there are fewer visitors. Occasionally they are seen in the middle section of the Park. The mature males are also very shy.

While they are maturing, the bulls go through such a big transformation, that you would not recognise them as being the same animal. The calves and young bulls resemble the cows. The same can be said for the differences between the males and the females, you wouldn't say that they belong to the same species either.

The bulls have a long, shaggy, greyish- brown coat with 8 to 14 transverse white stripes. They have a longhaired dorsal crest, and a fringe of hair on the throat and belly. Cows have a short, reddish brown coat with up to 18 white transverse stripes. They have a short, dark dorsal crest. Both sexes have a white bar between the eyes.

Only the bulls carry horns, and these are very impressive. They have a slight spiral with one or two twists, a white tip, and can get as long as 80 cm. A bull is fully mature at 6 years, and will become solitary. Usually you see small herds of 1 or 2 cows with their calves and a bull. But on a few occasions, we have spotted a herd of 12 animals. Their alarm call sounds like a bark.

Please click on a thumbnail picture below to see a larger version of the photo (please note that your Internet browser must allow pop-up pages and javascript). For ease of use, there is also a numbered link on the pop-up page, so that you can go from one photo to the next.

© Please respect the copyright protection on my work and contact me if you are interested in possible reprint permisions. Thank you and I hope you enjoy viewing my photographs.