Last updated: October 2026 · Method: compiled from public listings and traveller reports; treat figures as planning aids, not quotations.
The nilgai, or blue bull, is the checklist’s largest antelope.
- The build: a horse-like silhouette and the bull’s blue-grey coat.
- They favour the open grasslands of the outer zones.
- The wider range: nilgai roam most of Rajasthan’s parks.
Nilgai are easy to identify and easy to underestimate. The bulls stand tall with a horse-like profile and the blue-grey coat that gives the species its name, while cows and young are tawny brown, so a mixed group can look like two species at once. They are grazers of open country, often in small herds, and they tolerate heat and dry ground that push other species toward water.
On safari they are a dependable sighting in the flatter, more open country where forest thins to grassland, and their calm reaction to vehicles makes them a good subject for behaviour-watching as well as photographs. Watch for alarm behaviour anyway: nilgai stamp and stare when a predator moves nearby, and guides use that the same way they use deer calls. Outside the park they are a common sight across rural Rajasthan, which is why the species is so familiar to local travellers.