The Eland, an ox-like antelope, is the largest in the world. It belongs to the ‘spiral-horned’ subfamily, along with the likes of kudu and bushbuck.
Two species of eland are found in Africa. The first is the giant eland (Taurotragus derbianus) which is the slightly larger of the two, and occurs in central and Western Africa. The second is the more familiar, common eland (Taurotragus oryx) which occurs in east and southern Africa, from Kenya to Botswana.
Bulls of both species may top 900kg and stand 1.7m at the shoulder. Females are about half the male’s weight.
Bulls of both species attain shoulder heights of 150–180 cm (59–71 inches) and weigh nearly one ton. Males mature at seven years and continue to add bulk with age, whereas females are mature by four years and remain much slimmer, with a shoulder height of 120–150 cm (47–59 inches) and a weight of 317–470 kg (699–1,036 pounds).
5 fascinating facts about eland
They are great jumpers, despite their huge size, and can clear a two metre fence with ease.
Listen closely and you’ll hear a distinct clicking sound as they approach. This is thought to come from their hooves, which splay apart and click back together under the animals’ great weight.
It was both food and spiritual inspiration to the prehistoric hunter-gatherer peoples of southern Africa. And it features prominently in rock- and cave-art across the region. Today place names such as Elandsbaai and Elandsfontein and surnames such as Mpofu (‘eland’ in Zulu) suggest how central to the region’s culture this antelope once was.
The giant eland is also called ‘Lord Derby's eland' after Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby who introduced it to England between 1835 and 1851. At that time, Lord Derby sent botanist Joseph Burke to South Africa to collect animals for his museum and menagerie.
The common eland is tawny with up to 12 white torso stripes and dark markings, which include foreleg garters, a short dorsal crest and neck mane, and the tuft of the hock-length tail. Colour is paler with indistinct markings in the southern subspecies (T. oryx oryx). A dewlap, present in both sexes, grows long and pendulous in bulls, which also turn darker and develop a thick, black forehead tuft. The horns are straight with one or two screwlike spirals; horns are usually longer and thinner in females.
Eland seen in the Addo Elephant Park, Eastern Cape
The giant eland is reddish brown with a blackish neck and vertical white striping. It has large, rounded ears. Its horns are heavier and more widely divergent than those of the common eland; they stretch up to 123 cm (48 inches) long in bulls.
The giant eland is known to form herds of up to 60 animals, but it is more elusive and less sociable than the common eland, which sometimes aggregates in herds of hundreds on open plains (up to 500 in Serengeti National Park). The average, however, is a dozen or less, and herd membership is very fluid. Large herds invariably include numerous calves, whose strong mutual attraction forces mothers to remain in attendance. Though bulls often accompany female herds, they commonly associate in separate bachelor herds, which occupy smaller home ranges (50 square km [19 square miles], compared with 400 square km [154 square miles] for females in one Kenyan study) and denser woodland. Senior bulls often wander alone seeking mating opportunities, announcing themselves by the loud clicking of their forelegs as they walk.
The common eland is the slowest antelope, with a peak speed of 40 kilometres (25 mi) per hour that tires them quickly. However, they can maintain a 22 kilometres (14 mi) per hour trot indefinitely and they can jump over one another and 2-metre [7-foot] fences effortlessly, but they cannot sustain a gallop. Their size offers protection from other predators, and females with calves mount a group defense against lions, unlike most other antelopes.
Behaviour
Older males tend to be more solitary. The social organization of the eland is somewhat different from that of other antelopes. The older the male, the more solitary the animal is, while younger animals may form small groups. Males are also more sedentary than females, who may travel widely, especially during the dry season. Females and young are found in loosely cohesive groups. Calves spend a lot of time grooming and licking each other, developing bonds even stronger than those of calf with its mother.
Eland young are born year round.
Females with young calves come together in nursery groups. After the young are weaned at about three months, the mothers rejoin the female herds and the calves remain together in the nursery group. With year-round births, some adult females are always present in a nursery group and they defend all juveniles present, not just their own. Juveniles usually remain in the nursery groups until they are almost two years old when they begin to wander off and join other loose groupings of their sex.
Interesting read on why eland click their knees! Read it here.
Diet
Eland prefer a vegetarian diet and 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. Common eland are one of the most adaptable ruminants and are found in grassland, mountain, acacia savanna, and miombo woodland areas. They distance themselves from deserts, forests, and swamps.They also consume certain fruits, large bulbs, and tuberous roots.
Water is consumed voraciously when it is available, but they can go with minimal to no water during the dry season.
Challenges
As human populations are growing and expanding settlements and agriculture, they are encroaching on elands living spaces and destroying habitats and food sources. Eland have been eliminated from more than 50 percent of their historic range due to human encroachment, and since the 1970s, their population decreased dramatically because of civil wars and its aftermath in countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Angola, and Mozambique.
Great Question!
Is an eland bigger than a moose?
Eland are bigger, stronger, and faster than the moose, but a moose is taller and more aggressive than an eland. The horns of elands are longer and straighter, but moose horns are more shaped with multiple shorter and smaller points.
How can I see an Eland in the wild?
If you want to see this unique antelope of Africa in the wild, look no further.
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