Gemsbok
Amazing fact
Gemsbok raise their body temperature to delay cooling through water evaporation.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Gemsbok raise their body temperature to delay cooling through water evaporation.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Gemsbok
- Scientific name
- Oryx gazella
- Japanese name
- ゲムズボック
- Group
- Land mammals
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Bovidae
- Genus
- Oryx
A large member of the cattle family, it can live on stony plains with little water and even among sand dunes.
Both males and females have horns, and black markings run across the face, over the eyes and above the nose.
It digs up roots and tubers, and together with wild melons these give it all the water it needs.
How the Gemsbok lives
At dawn and dusk, it feeds on grass along with the water droplets condensed on it. It usually grazes on grass but browses on leaves and similar food when grass is unavailable, such as during drought. The dominant female leads the herd, while the dominant male brings up the rear and retrieves stragglers.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- 180–195 cm
- Weight
- 180–240 kg
- Active
- At dawn and dusk
- Range
- Southeastern Africa
Where the Gemsbok has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ゲムズボック
- 简体中文
- 南非剑羚
- 繁體中文
- 南非劍羚
- 한국어
- 겜스복
- Español
- Gemsbok
- Français
- Gemsbok
- Deutsch
- Südafrikanischer Spießbock
- Português (Brasil)
- Órix-austral
- Italiano
- Orice gazzella
- العربية
- مهاة جنوب إفريقيا
- Русский
- Орикс
- Türkçe
- Gemsbok
- ไทย
- ออริกซ์
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Oryx gazellaChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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