MALE KUDU.
A kudu bull stands about 5 feet or a little more at the withers, being in size only inferior to the eland. The horns form a corkscrew-like spiral.
The greater kudu is a bush-loving antelope, and very partial to wooded hills, though it is also plentiful in the neighbourhood of rivers which flow through level tracts of country covered with forest and bush. In my own experience it is never found at any great distance from water. It eats leaves and wild fruits as well as grass, and lives in small herds or families, never, I believe, congregating in large numbers. In Southern Africa, at any rate, it was always exceptional to see more than twenty greater kudus together, and I have never seen more than thirty. At certain seasons of the year the males leave the females, and live alone or several together. I once saw nine magnificently horned kudus standing on the bank of the Chobi, and I have often seen four or five males of this species consorting together. As a rule the greater kudu is met with in hilly country or in bush so dense that a horse cannot gallop through it at full speed; but if met with in open ground, a good horse can overtake an old male without much difficulty. The females are much lighter and faster, and cannot be overtaken in any kind of ground.
The greater kudu is one of the most timid and inoffensive of animals, and when attacked by dogs will not make the slightest attempt to defend itself either with its horns or by kicking.
The Lesser Kudu in general colour nearly resembles its larger relative, but is much smaller, the males only standing about 40 inches at the withers, and it lacks the long fringe of hair under the throat. The white stripes on the body and hindquarters are, however, more numerous—from eleven to fourteen; and the horns, which are only present in the males, are less divergent, and with the spiral curvature much closer than in the greater kudu.
The lesser kudu is an inhabitant of Somaliland and the maritime districts of British East, Africa. It frequents thick scrubby jungle, and is said to be exceedingly watchful and wary. It lives either in pairs or in small families, but never congregates in large herds. Like all the tragelaphine antelopes, this species is a leaf-eater, and feeds principally during the night, lying up in thick bush during the heat of the day.
Photo by J. W. McLellan] [Highbury.
ELAND.
A feature of the eland is the large "dewlap." Unlike the kudu, both sexes are horned.