The Lesser Koodoo (Strepsiceros imberbis)
Native name, Gódir or Arreh Gódir (male); Adér-yu (female); Adér-yu (collective)
This is, to my mind, quite the most beautiful of all the Somáli antelopes, and the skin is more brilliantly marked and the body more gracefully shaped than that of the greater koodoo. The lesser koodoo is rather smaller than the oryx.
The lesser koodoo is found in thick jungles of the larger kind of thorn-tree, especially where there is an undergrowth of the hig or slender pointed aloe, which is of a light green colour, and grows from four to six feet high. This antelope may also be found hiding in dense thickets of tamarisk in the river-beds. It is not found in the open grass plains, and I have never seen one in the cedar forests on the top of Gólis. Its favourite haunt used to be along the foot of this range, and I do not think its numbers have been much diminished of late years. By far the best lesser koodoo ground I have ever visited is the thick forest on the Webbe banks, near Imé and Karanleh. These Webbe specimens are different to the ones found under Gólis, as they are smaller, have shorter horns, are still more brilliantly marked, and have hoofs nearly twice as long. The hoofs of a Webbe lesser koodoo are, like those of a Webbe bushbuck, of extraordinary length.
Lesser Koodoo
Length of horns straight, 27½ inches.
The lesser koodoo likes to be near water, and living as it does among the densest thickets, its ears are wonderfully well developed. It has powerful hind-quarters, and is a strong leaper, the white bushy tail flashing over the aloe clumps as it takes them in great bounds. They are very cunning, and will stand quite still on the farther side of a thicket listening to the advancing trackers, then a slight rustle is heard as they gallop away. The best way to get a specimen is to follow the fresh tracks of a buck, the sportsman advancing in a direction parallel with that of the tracker, but some fifty yards to one flank and in advance; a snap shot may then be got as the koodoo bounds out of the farther side of a thicket, but you may be months in the country before getting a really good buck. They go in herds of about the same number as do the greater koodoos. Old bucks are nearly black, and the horns become smooth by rubbing against trees; and scars of all sorts remain on the neck, being the result of wild rushes through the jungle or fights with other bucks. The average length of a good buck’s horns is about 25 inches from base to tip. The longest I have shot or seen was between 27 and 28 inches in length in a straight line. The horns are very sharp, but I have never seen a lesser koodoo attempt to charge.