Common Eland

Fun facts

• The largest antelope on Earth — bulls weigh up to 940 kg, heavier than a small car, yet they can still clear a 2.5-metre fence from a standing start.
• Both sexes carry spiral horns, but cows' horns are usually longer and thinner; the bulls' shorter, thicker pair are used in head-pushing dominance contests rather than open combat.
• Eland have a distinctive "click" gait — a tendon snapping over a bone in the foreleg — so a moving herd is audible long before it's visible through tall grass.
• They are extraordinary water-savers; they raise their daytime body temperature by several degrees to delay sweating, then dump the heat at night when humidity drops.
• Eland were among the first wild bovids successfully ranched for meat and milk in southern Africa, and feature heavily in San Bushman rock art as a spiritual animal.