274 
UNGULATES. 
Distribution. 
open spiral formed by the enormous horns of the male, and the presence of a 
thick fringe of hair on the throat. The ground-colour of females and young males 
is reddish or greyish brown, marked with eight or nine white stripes; but in old 
males it becomes bluish grey, apparently owing to the skin showing through the 
scanty hair. The kudu is only inferior in size to the eland; a full-grown bull 
standing about 4 feet 4 inches at the shoulder. The horns may attain a length of 3 
feet 5 or 6 inches in a straight line, while one instance is recorded where the one 
horn measured 3 feet 9 inches, and the other 3 feet 9| inches. In a pair measuring 
3 feet 5 inches in a straight line, the length along the curve was 5 feet 4 inches. 
The geographical range of the kudu extends from the Cape to 
the Abyssinian highlands, embracing all Eastern Africa and extending 
westwards to Angola. Some years ago Mr. Selous stated that a few kudu still 
lingered in the Cape Colony, while in Griqualand West they were not uncommon. 
From the Limpopo to the Zambesi they w T ere at that time abundant; and Mr. 
Crawshay records them as distributed all over Nyasaland. In the Kilima-Njaro 
district they appear to be rare. Mr. Selous states that the kudu is usually partial 
to hilly country covered with dense thickets; but hills are by no means necessary 
to its existence, as it is common in the thick bush along both banks of the river 
Chobi, where there are no hills whatever, and it is also plentiful in the wait-a-bit 
thorn-jungles on the Lower Molapo, just on the edge of the flat and sandy Kalahari 
Desert. In Nyasaland they are never found far away from the hills. Mr. 
Crawshay states that kudu are fond of browsing on the young and tender shoots 
of trees and shrubs, especially in the dry season, when the grass has been burnt oft', 
and has not had time to grow. When alarmed, kudu sometimes give vent to a low 
bark, but this is only audible at close quarters. 
Kudu are generally found in pairs or in small parties. Their 
speed is not great; but owing to the circumstance that when dis¬ 
turbed they invariably make for the roughest ground, while the districts they 
haunt are frequently infested with the tsetse fly, it is but seldom that they 
can be hunted on horseback. With dogs, however, they afford excellent sport; 
and Mr. Drummond gives the following graphic account of two bull kudu 
brought to bay by a pack of Kaffir dogs. “My eyes,” writes Mr. Drummond, 
“ were fixed upon the river, for there, on a small sandbank, stood the two noble 
kudu bulls at bay. Two or three dogs had also gained a footing, and made the air 
ring with their sharp barking, re-echoed back again and again by the precipice on 
which I stood; while several more swam about trying to stem the current and 
regain the ground which they had lost. One of the antelopes stood with lowered 
head, and his long circling horns pointed towards the dogs, and in his side I now 
saw that a spear was half buried; the other, evidently unwounded but unwilling 
to leave its companion, remained motionless, his nostrils thrown forward, as if to 
catch the first taint of the human pursuers sure to follow in their dogs’ wake, and 
his equally magnificent horns resting almost on his haunches.” 
The lesser kudu (A imberbis) is a much smaller animal, apparently 
restricted to Somaliland and the Kilima-Njaro district. In addition 
to its inferior dimensions, this species is distinguished by the absence of a fringe 
of long hair down the throat, and by the more compressed spiral of its horns. 
Habits. 
Lesser Kudu. 
