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Facts about this animal

The common eland, also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a Savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. Eland are peaceful herbivores and these antelopes once reached the verge of extinction because of excessive hunting for their tasty meat. Fortunately, their numbers have increased significantly after they were announced a protected species. Eland, though mostly peaceful, exhibit a raging behavior, specially the males, at the time of competing for leadership of the herd, as well as, for mating the females. This rage even complements their strong built and enormous strength with which they, at times, bring down trees to graze the tender leaves off the upper portions.

According to the AWF, their rich milk, tasty meat, and useful hides have made Eland popular ranch animals and hunting targets. Female Eland are much smaller when compared to the stags. This makes them much more vulnerable to the predators. An eland has large hoofs which give it its peculiar walk and this is the feature which makes it similar to the cattle family.

Adult males have a thick growth of hair on the forehead which distinguishes them apart from the females of the species. These hairs grow thicker with age. This coat changes its colour with age and time. It is tan-ish in colour when they’re young, and turns bluish-grey as they age. At times, the coat turns into a dark black colour when an eland grows really old. The males of this species also have a unique feature called dewlap. It is a continuous piece of loose skin which hangs from their neck and has a tuft of thick black hair growing from

Eland have large ears that serve as signaling devices and both male and females have tightly spiraled, 'V'-shaped horns. They can be up to 123 cm (long on males, and 66 cm on females. Males have horns that are thicker at the ends, longer, and more divergent than those of females. Eland can move quickly, running at over 43 mph (70 km/h), and despite their size are exceptional jumpers, easily clearing heights of 1.5 m (4.9 ft).

Factsheet

Scientific classification

• Scientific Name: Taurotragus Oryx
• Size: About 70 inches
• Weight: 300 to 600 kg (females) and 450 to 1,000 kg (males)
• Lifespan: 15-20 years in the wild
• Habitat: grassland, mountain, sub-desert, acacia Savannah and miombo woodland
• Diet: Grazers
• Gestation: 9 months
• Predators: Lions, cheetahs, hyenas, leopards, crocodiles,humans

Conservation status: Least concern / abundant