Ankle-height to a giraffe

The Steenbok, Raphicerus campestris, is a miniature antelope, 24″ tall at the shoulder. The grasses that barely reached the giraffe’s knees rise over the steenbok’s head:

They can melt into the grasses in an instant:

but sometimes they emerge amongst shorter plants, and you can see one entire:

Only the males have horns, short abrupt black prongs just visible here:

And here is a female, one ear folded back, with long eyelashes, and a gland beneath the eye that looks for all the world as though her mascara has run.

By and large, you see only one steenbok at a time, which suggests they are solitary, but our guide told us that there are usually two of them in the neighborhood, staying loosely in touch but not joined at the hip. We did once see a second one appear after the first one startled, which fits his explanation.

The sere Makgadikgadi is an unforgiving environment but steenboks can survive almost entirely without water, getting all the moisture they need from their browsing.