The term antelope refers to numerous extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae that are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Eastern Europe.

This is likely due to competition over shared resources, as deer and antelope fill a virtually identical ecological niche in their respective habitats.

Countries like India, however, have large populations of endemic deer and antelope, with the different species generally keeping to their own "niches" with minimal overlap.

Unlike deer, in which the males sport elaborate head antlers that are shed and regrown annually, antelope horns are bone and grow steadily, never falling off.

[2] The English word "antelope" first appeared in 1417 and is derived from the Old French antelop, itself derived from Medieval Latin ant(h)alopus, which in turn comes from the Byzantine Greek word ἀνθόλοψ, anthólops, first attested in Eustathius of Antioch (c. 336), according to whom it was a fabulous animal "haunting the banks of the Euphrates, very savage, hard to catch and having long, saw-like horns capable of cutting down trees".

[4] The term is used to describe all members of the family Bovidae that do not fall under the category of sheep, cattle, or goats.

Usually, all species of the Antilopinae, Hippotraginae, Reduncinae, Cephalophinae, many Bovinae, the grey rhebok, and the impala are called antelope.

In Europe, several extinct species occur in the fossil record, and the saiga was found widely during the Pleistocene but did not persist into the later Holocene,[7] except in Russian Kalmykia and Astrakhan Oblast.

[8] Many species of antelope have been imported to other parts of the world, especially the United States, for exotic game hunting.

Texas in particular has many game ranches, as well as habitats and climates that are very hospitable to African and Asian plains antelope species.

However, many species are more secluded, such as the forest antelope, as well as the extreme cold-living saiga, the desert-adapted Arabian oryx, the rocky koppie-living klipspringer, and semiaquatic sitatunga.

Antelope are ruminants, so they have well-developed molar teeth, which grind cud (food balls stored in the stomach) into a pulp for further digestion.

Acute senses of smell and hearing give antelope the ability to perceive danger at night out in the open (when predators are often on the prowl).

These same senses play an important role in contact between individuals of the same species; markings on their heads, ears, legs, and rumps are used in such communication.

Other groups have twisted (e.g. common eland), spiral (e.g. greater kudu), "recurved" (e.g. the reedbucks), lyrate (e.g. impala), or long, curved (e.g. the oryxes) horns.

Horns are not shed and their bony cores are covered with a thick, persistent sheath of horny material, both of which distinguish them from antlers.

They live in a forest environment with patchy resources, and a male is unable to monopolize more than one female due to this sparse distribution.

They are agile and have good endurance—these are advantages when pursued by sprint-dependent predators such as cheetahs, which are the fastest of land animals, but tire quickly.

For example, gazelles may not flee from a lion until it is closer than 200 m (650 ft)—lions hunt as a pride or by surprise, usually by stalking; one that can be seen clearly is unlikely to attack.

The main causes for concern for these species are habitat loss, competition with cattle for grazing, and trophy hunting.

With the preference of predators towards old and infirm individuals, which can no longer sustain peak speeds, few wild prey-animals live as long as their biological potential.

Most species are difficult to contain in any density, due to the territoriality of the males, or in the case of oryxes (which have a relatively hierarchical social structure), an aggressive disposition; they can easily kill a human.

Also, antelope will consistently display a fear response to perceived predators, such as humans, making them very difficult to herd or handle.

These antelope sometimes jump over each other's backs when alarmed, but this incongruous talent seems to be exploited only by wild members of the species; tame elands do not take advantage of it and can be enclosed within a very low fence.

Their meat, milk, and hides are all of excellent quality, and experimental eland husbandry has been going on for some years in both Ukraine and Zimbabwe.

The heraldic antelope has the body of a stag and the tail of a lion, with serrated horns, and a small tusk at the end of its snout.

This bizarre and inaccurate form was invented by European heralds in the Middle Ages, who knew little of foreign animals and made up the rest.

The antelope was mistakenly imagined to be a monstrous beast of prey; the 16th century poet Edmund Spenser referred to it as being "as fierce and fell as a wolf.