The Koodoo 



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a certain extent specialised, and are able to live in waterless tracts of 

 country, but my own experience has led me to believe that these antelopes, 

 like all the rest of the Tragelaphine group with which I am acquainted, 

 are never found at a distance of more than a few miles from water. 



According to my experience, koodoos are never found in open country 

 devoid of bush, nor in country which is waterless, though otherwise suited 

 to their wants. The sight of koodoos, Burchell's zebras, impala antelopes, 

 and wart-hogs has always been to me a sure indication that water was not 

 very far off. Koodoos are found in the neighbourhood of all the rivers of 

 Western South Africa which run through tracts of desert waterless country, 

 such as the Chobi, Tamalakan, Botletli, and the Notwani ; and during 

 the dry time of year it is hopeless to look for these animals at a 

 distance of more than three or four miles from the river's bank. During 

 the rainy season, however, when the desert pools hold water, koodoos 

 wander far out into the Kalahari. In support of this view I may say that 

 I have always found koodoos and impalas plentiful along the desert road 

 between Sechelis and Bamangwato during the rainy season when the 

 vleys x held water, but entirely absent along the same route when the pools 

 were dry. At such times they had all retreated to the Notwani River. 

 Koodoos are very fond of broken hilly country clothed with forest and 

 bush, and intersected by streams flowing through thorn thickets and 

 clusters of tall feathery acacia trees ; but hills are not necessary to them, 

 as they are plentiful along both banks of the Chobi, and many other rivers 

 I know of, where there are no hills. Nowhere, I think, within recent 

 times were koodoos more plentiful than along the Limpopo River and 

 its many tributaries, such as the Marico, Macloutsie, Shashi, Tati, and 

 other streams in South-Western Matabeleland, and all the largest horns I 

 have seen have been obtained in these districts. I fancy that the koodoos 

 themselves grow larger in the country watered by the Limpopo and its 



1 Pools and lakes formed during the rainy season. 



