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Have you ever seen a kudu? A ku what, you say? You may not be too familiar with it, but the kudu is a beautiful antelope that lives in East Africa’s national parks and wildlife reserves. The kudu is an extremely shy animal, so those who do get to see one should count themselves as very lucky.
The kudu feed and move about only in the early morning hours, the late afternoon or deep into the night, making them even harder to spot. During the heat of the day they rest in bushy thickets.
The body of the male kudu is a rich gray color,banded with thirteen or fourteen white vertical strips. A conspicuous white patch can be seen on his throat. There is also a white bar on his lower neck. The white chevron between his velvety eyes and the white area around his mouth give character to his dark face. Running down his neck, shoulders and back is a short, white mane. His head is crowned with two triple twisted horns that gracefully spiral upward and outward.
There are two types of kudu found in Africa – the lesser kudu and the greater kudu. The greater kudu is bigger and can be distinguished by the heavy brown and white beard that extends to his chest. The horns of the greater kudu are also larger, as are his ears. The greater kudu had only eight vertical white body stripes.
The birth of the baby kudu is immediately followed by the mother’s licking it clean. This removes the scent which could allow predators to track the animal down. The mother will then go off to feed, confident that the baby will stay put. After about 10 days, when it begins nibbling on plants, the baby will begin to develop body odor. It will now accompany it’s mother everywhere. The reason, of course, is that it has now become a target for predators.
The kudu is known for establishing territory boundaries. The male will choose and defend a particular patch of ground. The area will be marked by depositing excrement on grass and bushes. Any male intruders will be chased out of this territorial zone. Females, however, are welcome to stay. Such instinctive territorial marking keeps the herds well dispersed. This prevents over grazing. However, when a drought occurs something amazing happens to the kudu. The instinctive territorial nature of the animal is reversed and they migrate. The need for closer cohesion brings the herd together. They will vacate an area en masse in search of new feeding grounds.
The kudu male will normally weigh between two hundred and two hundred and fifty pounds. However, in 1992 a massive specimen was seen in South Africa that weighed about 660 pounds. This animal presented itself outside of the luxury Lowveld game lodge. The local kudu male, however, took exception to this invasion and began a charge towards the massive newcomer. But when he hit the other animal, the intruder didn’t even budge. The local kudu charged again, but still no movement. The attacking animal then went off in a rage, never to come back again. On another occasion, 12 lions surrounded the massive beast and attempted to bring it down. One lion jumped on it’s back while another ran up and lunged at it’s neck. Despite their best efforts, however, they were not able to get a grip on the kudu. The animal simply stood it’s ground, oblivious to what was going on around it. Finally the lions slinked off in disgrace. Neither the local kudu nor the twelve attacking lions, however, realised that this ‘unbeatable’ kudu was, in fact, a statue made of bronze and presented to the wildlife park in honour of this beautiful, elusive creature of the wild.
In the mid 1980’s it many kudu died in reserves of unknown causes. The deaths seemed inexplicable as the reserves had plenty of trees. After much study, however, it was proven that trees have a natural defense against leaf defoliation by kudu and other grazers. The leaves are stimulated to produce a form of tannin know as Tannin K. The kudu cannot digest Tannin K and so stopped eating. The kudu then starved to death, unable to eat the foliage that was within reach because of this amazing natural defense.
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