The Antelopes 



259 



there are two or three cheek-spots, as well as an arrow-shaped white mark across the nose, 

 below the eyes. In the male there is a slight mane on the back of the neck, and a fringe 

 of long white and blackish-brown hair intermixed, extending from the throat to the chest. The 

 ears are very large and rounded, and the male is adorned with magnificent spiral horns, which 

 have been known to attain a length of 48 inches in a straight line from base to tip, and 

 64 inches over the curve. 



The greater kudu once had a very wide range, which extended from the central portions 

 of the Cape Colony to Angola on the west, and on the east throughout East Africa up to 

 Abyssinia; but, with the single exception of the buffalo, no species of wild animal suffered 

 more from the terrible scourge of rinderpest which recently swept over the continent than 

 this lordly antelope, and it has almost ceased to exist in many districts of South and South 

 Central Africa, where up to 1896 it was still very numerous. 



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 



Photo by Percy Ashenden] 



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. 



