Ladies and Gentleman, I thought I’d swap with tradition and give you an educational post full of interesting facts on one of Shamwari Game Reserve’s most common critters: the Eland Antelope. There are so many Eland at Shamwari Game Reserve that the conservation volunteers encounter them on a daily basis.Â
You may recall, in a previous post, that recently the students spotted an Eland Antelope that had been killed by a lion, and were able to determine that it was a male, due to the ridges on its horns. Well this is just one of many fascinating facts that enables the Eland to stand out from Shamwari’s other antelopes. I thought I’d pepper this post with a few more Eland-related anecdotes.

So here goes:

The Eland antelope may be the largest African bovid, but it is the slowest antelope, it can only run at 25mph, but is able to jump a whopping 10 feet from a standing start.

When walking the tendons in the Eland’s foreleg produce a sharp clicking sound, the cause of which has been widely investigated. The sound can be heard from some distance and is a good indication of an approaching herd. Scientists and rangers have concluded that this is a special form of communication, which alerts other Eland antelopes as to when a male Eland is leaving the confines of his territory.

The Eland largely resembles an ox in that it has the thick neck of the species and the Brahman bull-like dewlap. It is also distinctly related to the Oryx and gazelle, and like its relatives can conserve water by raising its body temperature by as much as 7 degrees Celsius on a hot day.

I hope you enjoy these Eland related facts. You may also be interested to know that the ticks in the neck-area of the Eland are of particular good quality; although maybe that’s something I should have kept to myself…