Playful wild antelope loves chasing birds through the garden

Having wildlife visiting our garden is not uncommon, but walking out the house to find a small wild antelope going absolutely bonkers chasing birds like a dog through our garden, was a totally new and hilarious experience I managed to capture on my phone.

Living and working in a wilderness area give us the opportunity to be really close to nature on a daily basis. Surrounded by the African bush, we do occasionally have wild animals entering the camp area that we live in. Antelope and elephants in general are very keen visitors, especially to all the gardens where lots of greenery are found right through the year. Usually, wild animals would not just appear near the camp or my house but rather wait until there is not a lot of movement around before moving into the gardens to enjoy a quiet sneaky feed before quietly disappearing again.

On this occasion it was a late Sunday afternoon and of course not much movement around my house. While lying on the couch inside the house, I suddenly heard a flutter and noise of birds in my garden. I slowly got up and saw that a small antelope was standing at the bottom of my garden. At first nothing seemed out the ordinary with the antelope being in the garden, but I quickly became totally stunned and amazed by what followed. While standing still, the antelope suddenly developed a serious surge of energy, bouncing and running around. In the process the antelope decided it will focus its energy on all the birds in the garden. It was hilarious to watch and I could not really understand why the sudden urge by this little antelope to start chasing birds through my garden just like a pet dog would do.

At first, I thought to myself that this would be a quick show of rare behaviour but I was wrong. The very playful wild antelope continued running around the garden and chasing birds for at least another 5 minutes. To end the whole bizarrely funny ordeal, the antelope showed incredible agility and jumped right on top of my concrete birdbath, holding its balance while quenching its thirst after a long stint of chasing birds around in the garden. I have seen many interesting animal behaviours while living out in the wild but this very random entertaining few minutes delivered by the antelope is surely something I will remember for a long time.