Adapted to waterless wastelands uninhabitable for most large mammals, Gemsboks inhabit semi-arid and arid bushland and grassland of the Kalahari and Karoo and adjoining regions of Southern Africa. They are is equally at home on sandy and stony plains and alkaline flats. It ranges over high sand dunes and climbs mountains to visit springs and salt licks.

Although they are predominantly grazers, they broaden their diets in the dry season to include a greater proportion of browse, ephemerals and Acacia pods. They drink water regularly when available, but can get by on water-storing melons, roots, bulbs, and tubers, for which it digs assiduously. Adaptations to living in a desert environment are summarized by Knight (in press).

The Gemsbok formerly occurred widely in the semi-arid and arid bushland and grassland of the Kalahari and Karoo and adjoining regions of southern Africa, with a marginal intrusion into south-west Angola (East 1999, Knight 2013). The extensive contraction in its distribution and decline of its numbers which accompanied the expansion of human activities in Southern Africa during the 19th and 20th centuries have been partly compensated in the last 10-20 years by the widespread reintroduction of Gemsbok to private land and protected areas. Today, they remain widely, albeit patchily, distributed in south-western southern Africa, although populations in Angola are now considered extirpated, even from the former stronghold in Iona N.P. (East 1999). They have also been introduced in small numbers to areas outside their natural range, such as private game ranches in Zimbabwe (East 1999).

The largest numbers occur on private land (about 45% of the population), especially in Namibia, and in protected areas (35%) such as Namib-Naukluft and Etosha (Namibia), Central Kgalagadi-Khutse Game Reserves and Gemsbok National Park and surrounds (Botswana) and Kalahari Gemsbok National Park (South Africa). All of these populations are stable or increasing.

The Gemsbok is of major economic value to the wildlife industry in southern Africa. It is a key trophy species on game farms and an important component of game-capture activities. In South Africa it is in great demand among farmers because of its trophy value. It has been introduced widely to areas outside its natural range, for example Gemsbok numbers have increased dramatically on bushveld farms in the north of the country, mainly due to introductions from Namibia. Kalahari Gemsbok National Park supports South Africa’s largest Gemsbok population.