The Common Eland

 The common Eland

The Classification of Common Eland

Kingdom ~ Animalia

Phylum ~ Chordata

Class ~ Mammalia

Family ~Bovidae

Subfamily ~ Bovinae

Genus ~ Taurotragus 

Species ~ T.oryx

Binomial Name Taurotragus Oryx

Name: Eland (Common)

Relatives: Giant Eland, Greater Kudo    

Environment: Savannah & Plains

Origin: Africa    

Life-span: up to 20 years

Elands are a social herd antelope.  They will typically live in groups of up to 60 animals.  In wetter seasons, they have been known to gather into a groups of 400-1,000 animals. An eland cow will give birth to a single calf, but the group’s calves are raised in a community nursery herd of additional mother cows

Eland are the world’s largest antelope, growing up to six feet tall at the shoulder and weighing close to a ton.  They are a tan in color with faint white stripes across their shoulders, a lighter neck and head, and black markings on their stomach and legs. Male eland have a large dewlap on their throat that become more pronounced with age.

  Eland have horns that are almost entirely straight, that by adulthood have two twists. 

 The females horns are longer than the males, however the males are thicker and wider.  Like other antelope, eland are cloven-hoofed.  When they walk, they make a clicking sound that some believe is made by the two pieces of hoof knocking together.  

In The Wild

In any given locations, temperatures in can Africa range between 50°-130° F. Eland antelope have developed many adaptations to survive in the barren parts of eastern and southern Africa where they are found.  They are able to survive without a constant available water source by consuming moisture-rich foods.

 The eland ensure they get the most of their food by grazing in the morning and evening when the air’s moisture has been absorbed by the plants.  

They conserve the moisture they have consumed by reducing their need to sweat. 

 Eland can raise their internal body temperature during the heat of the day, and then they lower it and release heat as the night air cools.  

All In The Family 

Eland are incredibly social animal.  They form communal herds where many males and their individual females.  Most often animal herds will have a single bull with a group of cows functioning as a single family unit, where the male is territorial with his area and his family.  

Eland live in multiple family groupings that work together to raise their young.  While each female only has a single calf each year, the young grow together in a nursery herd where all the mothers share responsibility for the offspring.  

Calves grow quickly due to the high fat and protein levels in their milk.  

Eland are a key component as food for large predators such as lions, cheetahs, and hyenas.  By communing into large groups, the young is more likely survive with greater protection of multiple adult males and females.

The common Eland has  long black spiral horns on both male and female.

They have Size that approximately 1.36 to 1.8 m (4.5 to 6 ft.)

Their estemated weight to 

Male:  400 to 1000 kg (880 to 2200 lbs.) and 

Female: 136.4 to 272.7 kg (300 to 600 lbs.)

Their Diet are 

Herbivore: includes leaves and fruit Incubation

Gestation lasts approximately 8 to 9 months; one offspring is born at a time

Sexual Maturity Male ~About 4 years

Female~ About 3 years

Life Span 8 to 10 years in the wild

Range

Eastern Tanzania  and Southern Africa

Habitat

Inhabits sparse forests and brush; open territory to semi-deserts

The fact that 

~The eland is the largest African bovid, but the slowest antelope. It can only run about 40 kph (25 mph), but it can jump 3 m (10 ft.) from a standing start.

When walking, tendon or joints in the eland's foreleg produce a sharp clicking sound, the cause of which has not been widely investigated. The sound carries some distance and is a good indication of an approaching herd. Some scientists believe it may be a form of communication; if a male is walking through his territory, the clicking which can be heard for up to a mile away, may alert another eland about this territory.

It shares characteristics with the ox such as a thick neck and Brahman Bull-like dewlap (especially in males).

It is one of the most adaptable ruminants, able to live in a wide array of environments, from desert to savanna, grassland to mountain. The only environments not suitable for an eland are swamps, forest, and deserts.

Like its distant gazelle and oryx relatives, the eland can conserve water by raising its body temperature as much as 7° Celsius (13.5° Fahrenheit) on hot days.

Elands can also vary their diet, breaking off high branches with their horns.

Ecology and Conservation

Elands are an important food source for many larger predators, especially cheetahs, lions, hyenas, African wild dogs, etc.

They have disappeared from large sections of their former range due mainly to over-hunting and habitat loss.

They are considered docile and easily tamed. Africa is attempting to domesticate them for meat and milk production. Eland milk has almost three times the fat and double the protein of milk from dairy cows.

What a difference between Kudus and Common Eland

As nouns the difference between kudu and eland is that kudu is a large, striped, african antelope of the species (the greater kudu) while eland is a genus of large south african antelope (), valued both for its hide and flesh

Elands bulls have a strict pecking order that determines their access to females in the herd. On the few occasions when they fight, they hardly ever use their dangerous horns and hooves, preferring instead to prove their strength through neck-wrestling. Even these grapples are a rarity; most eland conflicts are settled without violence through a series of ritual signals.

These signals include the bizarre knee-clicks which the bulls make with their front legs while walking. They sound like castanets and can be heard hundreds of metres away (listen to a WAV file). Predators could obviously use these distinctive noises to home in on eland males, so what purpose could they serve that compensates for this risk?

According to Jakob Bro-Jorgensen from the University of Jyvaskyla and Torben Dabelsteen from the University of Copenhagen, the clicks are a message to other males and their frequencies provide an honest and accurate measure of the individual’s size and fighting ability.