COMMON ELAND (TAUROTRAGUS ORYX) media
It is the second-largest antelope in the world, being slightly smaller on
average than the giant eland. It was scientifically described by Peter
Simon Pallas in 1766.
Mainly a herbivore, its diet is primarily grasses and leaves. Common elands
form herds of up to 500 animals, but are not territorial.
It prefers habitats with a wide variety of flowering plants such as savannah, woodlands, and open and montane grasslands, it avoids dense forests.
It uses loud barks, visual and postural movements, and
the flehmen response to communicate and warn others of danger.
The common eland is used by humans for leather, meat, and milk, and has
been domesticated in many areas. Eland milk contains more butterfat than
cow’s milk, and can keep longer without pasteurising.
It is native to Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia,
Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia,
and Zimbabwe, but is no longer present in Burundi.
Elands are both browsers and grazers. They feed mainly on green grass
during the rains and then switch to the foliage of dicots during the dry
season. Both sexes use their horns to break off branches too high to grasp
with their lips and tongue.
Their size offers protection from other predators, and females with calves
mount a group defense against lions, unlike most other antelopes.
Both males and females have horns that spiral
tightly, though female horns tend to be longer and thinner. Usually fawn or
Tawny-coloured, they turn gray or bluish-gray as they get older. The oldest
animals become almost black.
Common Eland can jump a 1.5 meter (4 feet) from a standstill.
while in Kenya, let us know if you would like to see this beautiful
