GREATER KOODOO 
As is very generally known, the female koodoo is hornless, but the male 
develops very large horns which grow in a spiral twist. The longest pair 
of koodoo horns I ever heard of came from the Kafue River, in North-West 
Rhodesia. They measured four feet two inches in a straight line from point 
to base, and also had a wonderful spread, but not much twist. There is 
also at least one other pair in existence which measures four feet from tip 
to base in a straight line. The longest authentic measurement over the 
curve in koodoo horns is, I believe, sixty -four inches. The most beautiful 
heads are, in my opinion, those in which a good length is combined with a 
graceful curve and a fair spread. 
In South Africa koodoos are never found in open grass plains, but 
always in forest or bush country, often amongst rugged stony hills, but 
quite commonly, too, on level ground. Although they feed greedily on 
young green grass, and will venture into very open ground sometimes in 
search of it, koodoos are, I think, rather browsing than grazing animals, 
eating the leaves and young shoots of many shrubs and bushes. They are, 
too, very fond of the fruits of various trees, which they pick up after they 
have fallen to the ground. There is some conflict of opinion as to whether 
the koodoo can be fairly classed amongst those species of antelopes which 
are undoubtedly able to go for long periods without drinking. That they 
can live in the Kalahari for months together in places where surface-water 
is non-existent there can be no doubt; but in such localities they are said 
to live on a kind of wild melon which grows in great profusion in certain 
districts of that waterless region, and which is full of juice; and since cattle 
and horses, and even human beings, can live quite well on these wild melons 
without actually drinking water, such wild animals as appear to be entirely 
dependent on them during the dry time of year cannot fairly be classed 
with true desert antelopes, which latter are able to live in countries where 
not only is there no water, but where also there do not appear to be any 
melons or other water -conserving plants. In my own experience I have 
never met with koodoos at any great distance from water. In the dry season 
I have always found them near the rivers in which there was permanent 
water; but in the rainy season, when every pool and hollow in the ground 
held water, they would wander far out into otherwise desert tracts, always 
returning to the rivers as the outside waters gradually dried up. 
As is the case with many other antelopes, koodoos are seldom met with 
in anything but very small herds during the rainy season, but during the dry 
months they are more gregarious. They never collect together, however, 
Q 113 
