Bushbuck occur widely in sub-Saharan Africa wherever there is cover to conceal it, from rainforest, forest edge to patches of gallery forest and bush near water in the sub-desert. It is naturally absent from arid and semi-arid regions and from extensive areas of closed-canopy forest. They range from low altitudes near the coast in southern, East and West Africa up to 4,000 m on the mountains of East Africa (Plumptre and Wronski 2013 and references therein). Its ability to survive in human-dominated landscapes and to withstand heavy hunting pressure has enabled it to persist over much of its former range (East 1999). Bushbuck are primarily browsers; in some areas, they enter agricultural fields to eat crops and may be considered a pest (Plumptre and Wronski 2013).

The Bushbuck ranges very widely across sub-Saharan Africa, except much of the Congo Basin forests and the south-west. Bushbuck occur in 40 African countries, more than any other antelope species (East 1999). The range extends from Mauritania, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau through West Africa to Ethiopia and southern Somalia, then southwards throughout East Africa and the more mesic areas of south-central Africa, extending to the eastern coastal areas of South Africa (East 1999, Plumptre and Wronski 2013). It also occurs on some small islands off the African mainland including Orango N.P. in the Bijagos Archipelago off the coast of Guinea-Bissau (East 1999). The only sub-Saharan country from which Bushbuk has not recently been recorded, and where they may formerly have occurred, is Lesotho (Lynch 1994).

The Bushbuck is present in numerous protected areas across its range. Its ability to survive widely in settled areas and successfully utilize habitats modified by human activities should ensure that it survives in substantial numbers outside protected areas for the foreseeable future (East 1999).