CreatureData

Black duiker

Cephalophus niger Gray, 1846

LCLeast Concernmammals

The black duiker (Cephalophus niger) is a species in the family Bovidae, order Artiodactyla. Recorded adults weigh 18.1 kg to 20.4 kg and live up to 14.6 years. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Black duiker (Cephalophus niger)
Photo: ucumari · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the black duiker

Weight
18.1 kg – 20.4 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
14.6 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Herbivoresrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
14.8 years
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Gestation
128 dayssrc for Gestation
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Active
At night (nocturnal)src for Active
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the black duiker live?

Not recorded

What is the black duiker?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The black duiker (Cephalophorus niger), also known as tuba in Dyula, is a forest-dwelling duiker found in the southern parts of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria.

The black duiker stands around 500 mm (20 in) tall at the shoulder and weighs 15 to 20 kg (33 to 44 lb). It has, not surprisingly, a black coat. The head is a rust colour with a large red crest between the ears. The black duiker has long, thin horns of 80 to 170 mm (3.1 to 6.7 in), but the horns of females reach only 30 mm (1.2 in).

The black duiker lives mainly in lowland rainforests, where it eats fruit, flowers, and leaves which have fallen from the canopy. It is probably diurnal, though this is surmised only from captive specimens. Black duiker are reported to be solitary, territorial animals.

The mating season of the black duiker is year round, but more offspring are born from November to January. The gestation period lasts 126 days, and is thus comparably short, usually only one young is born. Its average weight is 1.94 kg (4.3 lb); it is weaned around 90 days of age. The birth interval is seven and a half months. In captivity, the black duiker lives up to 14 years.

An estimated 100,000 black duikers are left in the world; they are threatened by hunting and are considered to be in decline across their range.

From the Wikipedia article “Black duiker” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_duiker&oldid=1381205444), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the black duiker endangered?

The black duiker is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the black duiker classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classMammalia
  4. orderArtiodactyla
  5. familyBovidae
  6. genusCephalophus
  7. SpeciesCephalophus niger Gray, 1846

Synonyms Antilope pluto

Other names and names in other languages (2)
  • SchwarzduckerGerman
  • Céphalophe noirFrench

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the black duiker

Other species in the same genus Cephalophus.

NT, Near Threatened
Bay duiker (Cephalophus dorsalis)

Bay duiker

Cephalophus dorsalis

Bovidae

CompareBlack duiker vs Yellow-backed duikerBlack duiker vs Red forest duikerBlack duiker vs Bay duikerBlack duiker vs Red-flanked duiker

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the black duiker?

An adult black duiker weighs 18.1 kg – 20.4 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the black duiker endangered?

The black duiker is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

How long does the black duiker live?

The black duiker has a recorded lifespan of 14.6 years.

How long is the black duiker pregnant?

The recorded gestation period is 128 days.

What kind of animal is the black duiker?

The black duiker (Cephalophus niger) belongs to the family Bovidae in the order Artiodactyla.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Black duiker (Cephalophus niger). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-duiker

MLA

“Black duiker (Cephalophus niger).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-duiker.

BibTeX
@misc{black_duiker_2026,
  title = {Black duiker (Cephalophus niger)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-duiker},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}