At Animal Triangle, We bring you a list of ‘Animals with Horns’, explaining how each animal uses their Horns for survival.
In this Article, We shall look at ‘Animals with Horns’ along with pictures so you can know how amazing their horns really are.
Table of Contents
Animals With Horns :
Markhor
A markhor, also known as the screw horn or screw-horned goat, is a herbivorous Capra that belongs to Genus Capra, Family Bovidae, and is found in Central Asia, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Karakoram, and the Himalayas.
It is a large-sized goat with horns that are tightly curled, flat and thick, corkscrew-like horns located on their heads. Interestingly, Both males and females possess horns. The horns of males are about 60 inches, which are longer than female horns about 10 inches.
During mating season, males will fight through their prominent horns with other males for gaining and attracting potential female mates, and to show or build dominance among the herd members.
The fighting between males involves lunging, locking horns, crashing their huge horns against each other repeatedly until the weaker surrenders, run away, or give up their mating chance to the winner or dominant.
Saiga
A saiga antelope, also known as saiga, is an herbivorous antelope that belongs to Genus Saiga, Family Bovidae, and is found in Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Mongolia.
The female saiga antelope look like alien creatures that come from the alien planets because of their weird-looking nose without horns on their heads(female). However, The male has thick, slightly translucent, wax-colored horns with 12 to 20 rings.
The length of the horn varies depending on the species it belongs to. For instance, The horns of the Russian saiga are about 15 inches long whereas the horns of the Mongolian saiga are about 9 inches long.
Nubian Ibex
The Nubian ibex is a long-horned goat species that belongs to Family Bovidae, Genus Capra, and is found in Saudi Arabia, northeast Africa, and other places.
The amazing thing about this goat is, they have long, thin, backside curved horns that really make you feel amazing. The horns of the males can grow up to one meter whereas the female horns can reach up to 1 foot, Thus the males have longer horns than females.
During the breeding season, males fight each other by clashing horns against one another, pushing one another through their horns, until the one wins to gain a female for mating, and also to build dominance among the herd.
Blackbuck
A blackbuck, also known as the Indian antelope, is an antelope species that belongs to Genus Antilope, Family Bovidae, and is found in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and other regions.
Only males of blackbuck have horns but it is not present in the female and if present then it’s small. The horns of male are corkscrew shaped, diverge away from each other as they grow to form a ‘V’ shape, with rings, and can grow up to 23 inches in length, occasionally up to 26 inches. However, the longest horn recorded is about 28 inches.
These antelopes can fight aggressively through their horns that involves stabbing, head-to-head collision, especially during territory violence, and competing for mating.
Rhinoceros
A rhinoceros, including white rhinoceros, black rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros, and others, is a very large-sized herbivorous land mammal that belongs to Family Rhinocerotidae and is found in Africa, Asia, Indian, Nepal, Borneo, Java, Indonesia, Sumatra, and other places.
They have large, pointed horns that are thick and are made of keratin, the same substance that makes our nails, and hairs. This horn is used for defense and offense. As a herbivorous animal, it takes the advantage of its horns by digging into the soil to find vegetables.
Apart from their thick skin and large body, Its horn is the only weapon through which they can fight against predators and intruders.
Arabian oryx
An Arabian oryx, also known as white oryx, is an antelope species that belongs to Family Bovidae, Order Artiodactyla, and is found in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and other places.
The striking feature of these antelopes is they have two long, straight, pointed horns that are slightly curved backside and can grow up to 30 inches in length. This type of horn gives them protection against predators such as lions, leopards, and hyenas.
Interestingly, When they felt threatened they would stab the intruders through their sharp horns. During mating seasons males will fight each other. During scarcity of food and bad conditions, Both males and females defend through their horns, especially during territorial violence.
Giant eland
The giant eland, also known as the Lord Derby eland, is a large-sized antelope that belongs to Genus Taurotragus, Family Bovidae, and is found in central Africa, western Africa, and other regions.
Both sexes of giant eland show horns, the horns of males are longer than the females. The male horn is about 4 feet while the female horn is about 2 feet in length. These horns are thick, tightly spiraled, pointed ends, and grow away from each other making ‘V’ shaped horns that are more pronounced in males.
Its horns are used to loosen soil, break off branches, fight with other males while competing for female mates, to fight against the predator such carnivorous animals including the lion pride.
Greater kudu
The greater kudu is a large-sized antelope that belongs to Genus Tragelaphus, Family Bovidae, and is found in southern Africa, Ethiopia, and other places.
The male greater kudu called bulls has horns while the female called cows lack horns. The horns in males are straight, twisted, pointed, long about 45 inches in length, and diverge slightly away from each other while also leaning slightly backside.
To establish dominance, to gain female mates, males fight each other through their horns that involve interlocking of horns that can sometimes lead to the death of the weaker one or both.
Bison
The Bison, including European bison, American bison, is a large-sized herbivorous mammal that belongs to Genus Bison, Family Bovidae, and is found in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Slovakia.
Both males and females of bison species have horns that are thick and are made by keratin. They fight through their horns by interlocking them with each other, collide their head on each other with a speed of 50 kmph, battering like rams, or sometimes stab with each other.
Its most obvious weapons are horns which they use against the predators, especially when its herd is disturbed the multiple bison will join together to charge the predators through their horns.
Ankole-Watusi
The Ankole-Watusi is an American breed of domestic cattle that have really large horns and is found in the United States, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda.
These cattle breeds possess large horns that are widespread and have a large circumference, a record shows some have reached a circumference of about 40 inches, and about 37 inches long.
Gerenuk
The gerenuk, also known as the giraffe gazelle, is an antelope that belongs to Genus Litocranius, Family Bovidae, and is found in East Africa, and other places.
These animals are tall with slender limbs, and necks, as a result, they will weigh very less, about 45 kg only. The male of the gerenuk species weighs more than the female.
Only the males of the gerenuk species have horns, which are strong, thick, S-shaped, or lyre-shaped, and can reach up to 16 inches in length.
Addax
An addax, also known as the white antelope or screwhorn antelope, is an antelope species that belongs to Genus Addax, Family Bovidae, and is found in the Sahara Desert, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad.
Both males and females of addax species have horns with two to three twists and 30-35 ring-shaped ridges located on the lower and middle portions of their horns. The horns in males can reach up to 33 inches in length and in females up to 31 inches.
The males of addax are large and possess longer horns than the females, these features can be used to distinguish them.
Read More: Animals With Tusks!
Bighorn Sheep
The bighorn sheep is a sheep species that belongs to Genus Ovis, Family Bovidae, and is found in North America, southern Canada, Colorado, Nevada, western Texas, California, and northern Mexico.
They have really huge horns which weigh about 14 kg while the body weighs about 140 kg, thus the horns account for about 10 percent of their body weight. The presence of these really big horns gives them the name bighorn sheep. These horns are larger in size than those in females, and interestingly, the occurrence of curves in the horns is more in the males than in the females.
Interestingly, The horns of male sheep weigh about 14 kg, which is equivalent to the combined weight of all the bones in its body-that’s a really amazing fact.
African buffalo
The African buffalo, also known as the Cape buffalo, is a buffalo that belongs to Genus Syncerus, Family Bovidae, and is found in Africa, savannas, mountains of Africa, and other places.
The African buffalo has two long and thick horns. The complete development of horns of these buffalo occurs around the age of 6 years. Thus, A matured buffalo has horns that curve away from each other at the lateral side while curving down and upside.
Surprisingly, The distance between the tip of the two horns is about 65 inches wide.
Mouflon
A mouflon is a wild sheep that belongs to Genus Ovis, Family Bovidae, and is found in Europe, eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Asia, and other parts of the world.
They have amazing horns that can grow and undergo up to one revolution while measuring about 80 cm. These horns are more expressed in male mouflon than in female mouflon. Thus, A female usually may not develop horns at all or if it is present then it will be smaller in size and length.
An interesting fact about mouflon is, They are believed to be the ancestor of currently living domesticated sheep breeds.
Jackson’s Chameleon
A Jackson’s chameleon, also known as a three-horned chameleon, is a chameleon species that belong to Genus Trioceros, Family Chamaeleonidae, and is found in East Africa, Hawaii, Florida, California, and other forests of the world.
The amazing thing about this Chameleon is, males have three horns and females none at all. Among the three horns of the males, one is located on the nose called the rostral horn, the other two are located above the eyes called the preocular horns.
Surprisingly, Because of its three horns and as it is Chameleon, these are gaining popularity as pets.
