Is the Blesbok Really Grape Juice Colored?

If you've heard that the blesbok antelope looks like walking grape juice, you've been misled. This South African native sports a glossy reddish-brown to chestnut coat—think cinnamon or rust, not Welch's purple.

So where did this grape juice comparison come from? It's unclear, but it's completely off the mark. The blesbok (Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi) is actually known for its warm, earthy tones that blend beautifully with the grasslands it calls home.

What Blesboks Actually Look Like

The blesbok's coat is a rich, reddish-brown that darkens along the flanks and buttocks. Their bellies, inner legs, and the area around the tail are bright white, creating a striking contrast. But the most distinctive feature? A bold white blaze running down their face, interrupted by a horizontal brown stripe above the eyes. In Afrikaans, "bles" literally means "blaze"—that's how prominent this marking is.

Both males and females have ringed horns that curve slightly backward, and they typically stand about 33-37 inches at the shoulder. Their coloring is actually quite practical: it provides camouflage in the open grasslands of South Africa's Highveld region.

The Bontebok Connection

The blesbok is a subspecies of the bontebok, and comparing the two helps clarify the color confusion. Bonteboks have a darker, richer purplish-brown coat with more extensive white markings. If someone squinted really hard at a bontebok at sunset, maybe—just maybe—they could argue for a distant grape juice resemblance. But blesboks? They're definitively in the reddish-brown camp.

This distinction matters because these animals were once hunted to near-extinction in the early 20th century. Today, thanks to conservation efforts, blesbok populations have recovered and they're commonly found in South African national parks and game reserves.

Why Color Descriptions Go Wrong

Animal color descriptions often suffer from creative license. Lighting conditions, individual variation, and the tendency to make memorable comparisons all contribute to colorful myths like this one. Someone might have seen a blesbok in certain light, made a casual comparison, and it stuck—despite being inaccurate.

The truth is actually more interesting than the myth. The blesbok's warm, reddish-brown coat has evolved over thousands of years to help these medium-sized antelopes survive in open grasslands. Their coloration helps them blend with dried grasses during South Africa's dry season while still allowing them to spot each other through those distinctive white facial markings.

Next time you see a blesbok, whether in person or in photos, you'll know exactly what to expect: beautiful rust-brown tones, not purple juice.