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 haimt 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 



