Females and juveniles are yellowish-fawn to tan and display the same white areas, only with more of a beige tone than the males.

Females also feature a more pronounced horizontal white side-stripe, starting around the shoulder and ending at the rump.

During the 20th century, blackbuck numbers declined sharply due to excessive hunting, deforestation, and habitat destruction.

The scientific name of the blackbuck Antilope cervicapra stems from the Latin word antalopus ("horned animal").

[2][4] The vernacular name "blackbuck" is a reference to the dark brown to black colour of the dorsal part of the coat of the males.

[6] The blackbuck is the sole living member of the genus Antilope and is classified in the family Bovidae.

[12] In a more recent revision of the phylogeny of the Antilopini on the basis of sequences from multiple nuclear and mitochondrial loci in 2013, Eva Verena Bärmann (of the University of Cambridge) and colleagues re-examined the phylogenetic relationships and found Antilope and Gazella to be sister genera distinct from the sister genera Nanger and Eudorcas.

[19] A 1997 study found lower variation in blood protein polymorphism in Antilope in comparison with Antidorcas, Eudorcas, and Gazella.

[20] The blackbuck has white fur on the chin and around the eyes, which is in sharp contrast with the black stripes on the face.

Darkness typically increases as the male ages; females and juveniles are yellowish fawn to tan.

[21] In Texas, blackbuck moult in spring, following which the males look notably lighter, though darkness persists on the face and the legs.

[5] The blackbuck is native to the Indian subcontinent and inhabits grassy plains and thinly forested areas where perennial water sources are available for its daily need to drink.

[1] The British naturalist William Thomas Blanford described the range of the blackbuck in his 1891 The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma as:[7] India from the base of the Himalayas to the neighbourhood of Cape Comorin (the southernmost locality known to me is Point Calimere), and from the Punjab to Lower Assam, in open plains, not in Ceylon nor east of the Bay of Bengal.

Not found on hills nor in thickly wooded tracts, and wanting throughout the Malabar coast south of the neighbourhood of Surat.

Antelopes are most abundant in the North-west Provinces, Rajputana, and parts of the Deccan, but are locally distributed and keep to particular tracts.Today, small, scattered herds are largely confined to protected areas.

[28] In either the late 1980s or the early 1990s, they were also introduced to Cape York in Far North Queensland, although the population was subsequently eradicated.

[31] In Victoria, blackbuck and American bison are considered both "regulated pest animals" and livestock.

Large herds have an edge over smaller ones in that danger can be detected faster, though individual vigilance is lower in the former.

[39] The blackbuck is severely affected by natural calamities such as floods and droughts, from which it can take as long as five years to recover.

[42] Blackbucks in Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary show flexible habitat use as the resources and risks change seasonally in the landscape.

Human activities strongly influenced the movement of herds, but the presence of small refuges allowed them to persist in the landscape.

It prefers sedges, fall witchgrass, mesquite, and live oak and was occasionally observed browsing on acacia trees in the Cholistan Desert.

Digestion of nutrients, especially crude proteins, was poor in summer, but more efficient in the rainy and winter seasons.

The dominant male pursues the female with his nose pointing upward, smells her urine and shows a flehmen response.

[5][22] During the 20th century, blackbuck numbers declined sharply due to excessive hunting, deforestation and habitat degradation.

[1] Until India's independence in 1947, blackbuck and chinkara were hunted in many princely states with specially trained captive Asiatic cheetahs.

[50][51] It inhabits several protected areas of India, including A captive population is maintained in Pakistan's Lal Suhanra National Park.

The antelope might have been a source of food in the Indus Valley civilisation (3300–1700 BCE); bone remains have been discovered in sites such as Dholavira[56] and Mehrgarh.

[63] In the Yājñavalkya Smṛti, Sage Yagyavalkya is quoted stating "in what country there is black antelope, in that Dharma must be known", which is interpreted to mean that certain religious practices including sacrifices were not to be performed where blackbuck did not roam.

[68] In some agricultural areas in northern India, the blackbuck are found in large numbers and raid crop fields.