128 TROPICAL SAVANAS 
oxen or sheep and goats, and they appear to be 
older. 
Eland are the largest African antelopes, and are 
distinguished by the presence of horns in both sexes. 
They were formerly common over the whole of 
Eastern and Southern Africa. Typical savana animals, 
they prefer open plains with scattered timber, 
but extend into the desert on the one hand and into 
the open savana wood on the other. Like not a few 
tropical animals they are intolerant of the hot sun, 
and where possible spend the hours of greatest heat in 
the shelter of woods, moving back to the grassy plains 
to feed and drink. Where possible they drink daily, 
but unlike the buffaloes they can tolerate thirst, and in 
the Kalahari desert apparently obtain sufficient water 
by eating water-melons and similar succulent fruits or 
plants. Like most ungulates they live in herds, and the 
student of botany will notice that the fodder plants 
upon which these animals depend (grasses, &c.) are 
social also, while in the tropical forests, where social 
animals are rare, social plants are also infrequent 
(cf. p. 96). 
Kudu (Strepsiceros) are distinguished from eland by 
the absence of horns in the female, as well as by other 
characters. They haunt thickets and country covered 
with bush, and occur in small parties, usually on very 
rough ground. Their speed is not very great. The 
preference for bush or thicket-covered country is even 
more marked in the harnessed antelopes (‘Tragelaphus), 
which we have already mentioned as being found even 
in the tropical forest. On the other hand, the addax 
from the deserts of North Africa and Arabia, and the 
gemsbok (Oryx gazella) from the deserts of South- 
Western Africa, are examples of forms which inhabit 
