362 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



With the single exception of the nearly extinct white- 

 tailed gnu of South Africa, the common African gnu or 

 wildebeest is psychically — and therefore in all its life habits 

 — the most interesting and original of all African ruminants. 

 It is as totally different in conduct as in aspect from all 

 other antelopes. In its temper it has something both of 

 the ferocious and sinister and of the queer and freakish, 

 the eccentric and fantastic. It is by nature an extremely 

 savage creature. When tamed it becomes excessively dan- 

 gerous as it grows old, attacking with mortal fury every 

 human being, from sheer homicidal anger and lust for death 

 and mischief. When wild it will charge if cornered or close 

 pressed when wounded. But its moderate bulk and blunt 

 horns furnish it with bodily weapons so poor as to render 

 it entirely helpless when assailed by either lion or man, and 

 knowledge of this bitter fact prevents it from ever venturing 

 combat with either of its great foes. It is as wary as it 

 is curious and ferocious, and no animal is harder to approach 

 on the bare, open plains where it dwells. It is unusually 

 noisy for an antelope, continually uttering its short grunt. 



Where we saw the wildebeests, at the extreme northern 

 end of their range, they were exclusively beasts of the open 

 plains. We rarely saw them even in thin thorn scrub into 

 which the hartebeests not infrequently ventured. Only 

 the gazelles were equally persistent in shunning cover and 

 in keeping to the grassy flats. It may be that elsewhere 

 the wildebeests venture more freely into thin, dry scrub. 

 But everywhere the animals are so conspicuous that they 

 make not the slightest effort to hide or escape notice. 

 Owing to its size — a big bull weighs from five hundred to 

 six hundred pounds — and its dark coloration, which seems 



