The bushbuck is the most widespread antelope in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is found in rain forests, montane forests, forest-savanna mosaics and bush savannaforest and woodland. Recently, genetic studies have shown that the bushbuck, is in fact a complex of two geographically and phenotypically distinct species. The most compelling evidence for the division of the bushbuck into the kéwel (Tragelaphus scriptus) and the imbabala (Tragelaphus sylvaticus) is that both species are more closely related to other members of the tragelaphine family (the imbabala to the bongo and the sitatunga, and the kéwel to the nyala) than to each other. The bushbuck ram is regarded by sports hunters as the most dangerous medium-size antelope, as it will hide in the bush after being wounded and charge the hunter when he comes looking for it, impaling the hunter with its sharp horns.

See also Kéwel.

The kéwel is distributed from Senegal and southern Mauritania across the Sahel, east to Ethiopia and Eritrea and south to Angola and the southern DRC. The imbabala occurs from the Cape in South Africa to Angola and Zambia and up the eastern part of Africa to the Ethiopia and Somalia. Both species occur sympatrically in northern Angola, southern DRC, around the Lake Albert area, southern Sudan and Ethiopia. The bushbuck will hardly ever be found in an area of close proximity to nyala as Nyala will always drive them away. Game Farmers in southern Africa found this out the hard way when they tried to introduce the two species in the same area; the bushbuck being driven away by the nyala.