Models based on estimated habitat suitability show that, before the colonists arrived, the range of the Blue Antelope was limited to a single suitable habitat; the Overberg Coastal Renosterveld, which covered ca 4,300 km². Although presently dominated by the unpalatable shrub renosterbos (Elytropappus rhinocerotis), this habitat would have possessed a high grass cover (Themeda triandra, Merxmuellera stricta) (Cowling and Heijnis 2001).

Historically the Blue Antelope was endemic to South Africa, where it was confined to a limited area of the southwestern Cape coast and where it was apparently uncommon. The species was first recorded in 1719 by Kolbe, and was described by Pallas in 1766 (Klein 1974) from material of uncertain provenance (Rookmaaker 1989). Its historical distribution is thus based on few records, of which only two can be considered to be reasonably precise (Kerley et al. 2009): Thunberg on 20 January 1774 and Le Vaillant in March/April 1783. An additional record in 1783 provided by Sparrman (1786) much further east at Krakeel River in the Langkloof may reflect a transported skin, given that this location is hundreds of kilometres east of other records. However, although the recent historical range is thought to be bounded by the locations of the Caledon, Swellendam and Bredasdorp, in the Western Cape (Skead 1980, Rookmaaker 1989), archaeological evidence suggests a previously much wider distribution: early in the Last Glacial (70,000–35,000 years before present (ybp)) it occurred on the grasslands of the Cape lowlands, south of the Cape Folded Belt from present day Grahamstown (farm ‘‘Uniondale’’) in the east to the vicinity of Saldanha Bay in the West. A similar distribution has been inferred for the early (ca 10,000 ybp) Holocene (Klein 1974, Cruz-Uribe et al. 2003). During the late Pleistocene (18,000–10,000 ybp), analysis of rock paintings reveal that the species occurred as far north as the eastern parts of South Africa’s Free State Province (Loubser et al. 1990, Plug and Engela 1992, Plug and Badenhorst 2001).

This species is now Extinct.