to the Cape in early days, Buffon was the first writer to give us a
good account of it. In the twelfth volume of his ‘Histoire Naturelle,’
published in 1764, Buffon introduced it into his work under the title
of “Le Condoma,” and gave a figure of its unmistakable horns from
a pair in the possession of the Marquis de Marigny. In these horns
Buffon recognized the animal previously indicated by Kolben as a “kind
of large Wild Goat.” In the sixth volume of the Supplement to the
‘Histoire Naturelle,’ published in 1782, Buffon entered into fuller
particulars of the Kudu, which he now called the “Condoma ou Coësdoës,”
apparently recognizing that the first of these names had been based on
a mistake or misspelling. He was also now able to give a figure of the
whole animal from a well-preserved skin received from “the interior of
Africa.” Further information was added, taken from the Dutch edition
of the ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ which had been then recently published by
Schneider in Amsterdam, and to which Prof. Allamand had contributed a
description of this animal, based on a specimen living in 1776 in the
Menagerie of the Prince of Orange, to whom it had been sent by Joachim
van Plattenberg, then Dutch Governor of the Cape. In his first essay
on the genus _Antilope_, published in 1766, the great naturalist,
Pallas, placed the Kudu sixteenth in his list, basing it mainly
on the “Condoma” of Buffon, and proposed for it the specific name
“_strepsiceros_.” Although, therefore, the Kudu could not have
been the _Strepsiceros_ of classical authors (which was in all
probability the Addax), there can be no question that the _Antilope
strepsiceros_ of Pallas, as based on Buffon’s “Condoma,” is this
species.
In 1827, Hamilton Smith, writing on the Mammals in Griffith’s ‘Animal
Kingdom,’ used the term _Strepsiceros_ as one of the subgeneric
divisions of his genus _Damalis_, thus, according to the views
of modern systematists, creating a new generic name, which has ever
since been universally employed for the Kudu. Although many authorities
are of opinion that the adoption of a specific name for the genus
ought not to interfere with its usage for the species also, and
consequently that the present animal ought to be called _Strepsiceros
strepsiceros_, such has not been our custom in the present work, and
it is consequently necessary to search out the second given specific
name. For this there may be said to be two generally recognized
claimants—first, “_capensis_,” bestowed upon it by Dr. Andrew
Smith in 1834; and, secondly, “_kudu_,” applied to it by Gray in
1843. Of these we are inclined to adopt the former as first given,
although the latter has been more generally accepted.
It is true no doubt that so long ago as 1816, in his ‘Lehrbuch der
Zoologie,’ Oken introduced the Kudu into his list of the species of
the genus “_Cemas_” under the heading “_C. kuhdu, Strepsiceros,
Cervus capensis_.” But it does not seem to be quite certain that
Oken hereby intended to bestow on the Kudu a new specific name, and
under these circumstances it would be objectionable, we think, to call
the Kudu, _Strepsiceros kuhdu_ (Oken). It has therefore been
decided to employ Andrew Smith’s name, concerning which there can
be no doubt whatever, for the present Antelope, and to designate it
_Strepsiceros capensis_.
The well-known travellers Sparrman (1785), Thunberg (1795), Daniell
(1804), Burchell (1822), and Steedman (1835), all met with the Kudu
during their journeyings in different parts of the Cape Colony, in
the more remote parts of which it was still plentiful in their days.
Harris (1836–37) states that although at that period the Kudu was
still found in many of the more retired portions of the Colony, he did
not himself meet with it until he had entered the “prolific environs”
of the Cashaan Mountains of Pretoria. Harris claims for the Kudu the
“right and title to the sovereignty of _all_ the Antelopes.”
Other species of this group, he allows, may be “stately, elegant, or
curious,” but the Kudu is “absolutely regal.”
Harris, in the letterpress to his ‘Portraits,’ describes the habits of
the Kudu in the Cashaan Mountains in the following lively manner:—
“There in the depths of solitary woods, by human foot untrod, the
noble animal occurs in such every-day abundance, that many a gory
trophy was realized; but his great sagacity, wildness, and self-
possession, demanding the most skilful generalship to out-manæuvre
him, the pursuit necessarily differs altogether from the usual
stamp of African hunting, and involves no inconsiderable
acquaintance with the subtleties of woodcraft. We have here no
dashing among countless herds, no helter-skelter riding by the
side of a closely-packed phalanx; yet have we a quarry well worth
the hardest day’s fag on foot to triumph over. Shunning both the
open plain and the society of the multitude, the crafty fellow
never ventures from his almost inaccessible fastness, unless
during the morning and evening; and even then must he be sought
_au pied_ amid the dark upland dells which usually form his
solitary abode. With all his wits about him, the lordly bull,
active and powerful, may now and then be detected browsing at grey
dawn upon some rugged hill summit, or ranging some grassy slope,
either alone, or escorted by a small troop of skittish dames, all
seeming alike his sentinels; but taking the note of alarm from the
slightest noise, he stamps his brave foot upon the ground, tosses
his spiral frontlet to the blue sky, and once fairly in motion,
never stops to look behind until he has gained the threshold of
his sanctuary. There, in some deep chasm which the sunbeam rarely
penetrates, among tangled ravines, and hollows densely clothed
with trees and brushwood, he lazily reclines during the solar
heat, beside some fern-clad stone, and leisurely turns the cud
until the cool breezes of eventide once more invite him from his
snug retreat.”
Amongst modern authorities on the Great Game-mammals of South Africa,
we may select passages from the writings of Mr. Kirby and Mr. J.
Millais as giving us good ideas of the present localities of the Kudu
and its usual habits. In his already-mentioned ‘Breath from the Veldt,’
Mr. Millais writes as follows:—
“Though the species is gone from the countries south of the
Transvaal, there is still a very fair number in the northern
forests of that country, and these are not confined to ‘a few
troops which still linger,’ as most books on the subject would
give us to understand. The fact is, very little hunting goes on in
these countries, owing to absence of water and thickness of the
bush; the amount of game still to be found there cannot therefore
be very much less than in the greater part of Mashonaland, which
is very much hunted. I think the following speaks for itself. Four
hunters whom I trekked up with each killed on an average ten
Koodoos in three months, besides a lot of Pallah and Blue
Wildebeests; and this too, in every instance, close to the main
road in the Transvaal. If then they could do this, there must
surely be a very fair quantity of game in the hundreds of
untrodden miles in the south-west and east of the several drifts
of the Limpopo. In Mashonaland the Koodoo is probably only reduced
in numbers near the transport roads, while it is still plentiful
in the neighbourhood of all the rivers and pans of that country
where the bush is suitable to its habits.”
In his well-known volume on the ‘Haunts of Wild Game,’ Mr. F. V. Kirby
introduces us to the habits of the present species in the following
terms:—
“Koodoo frequent rocky bush-covered hills—the rougher and more
apparently inaccessible they are the better they like them; but in
the Low Country they are equally at home in the heavy belts of
bush which line the rivers and water-courses. As a rule, in the
latter district they are fairly easy to run into on horseback,
although individual bulls and the cows will display great speed
and endurance; but in the hill country it requires much patience
and care to circumvent an old bull successfully. Unfortunately for
themselves, Koodoo are of a most curious disposition, and seldom
run far without standing and looking back at their pursuer. Their
leaping powers are marvellous, and I have seen them clear
obstacles 8 feet in height with apparent ease. Their sense of
hearing is very acute—one needs only to look at the large,
rounded, mobile ears to be satisfied on that point; and I believe
they trust more to that sense for their safety than to any other.
Though almost invariably found in the near neighbourhood of water,
I fancy they can go for a long time without drinking, judging by
the extensive dry areas in which I have found them.”
Mr. W. L. Sclater, in his new volume on the Mammals of South Africa,
states that within the limits of his work (that is Africa south of the
Zambesi and Cunene Rivers) the Kudu is still probably the most abundant
and widespread of the larger Antelopes. Within the Cape Colony, Mr.
Sclater tells us, the Kudu is yet to be met with in the southern
districts, from the Riversdale and Prince Albert divisions, eastwards
to Albany and Fort Beaufort. It is stated to be even abundant in the
bush-country along the Koonap and Great Fish Rivers. In the northern
parts of the Colony it is also fairly common in parts of Griqualand
West and Prieska. In German South-west Africa, Bechuanaland, Rhodesia,
the northern and eastern parts of the Transvaal, the Portuguese
territories, and in Zululand it is also fairly plentiful in suitable
localities. In the South-African Museum at Capetown there are mounted
specimens of a male Kudu from near Barberton in the Transvaal, and of a
female from Koonap in the Albany division of the Cape Colony.
But the Kudu, as we shall see, ranges far beyond the limits of
Mr. Sclater’s South Africa, and we will now proceed to trace its
distribution throughout Eastern Africa into the northern territories of
Abyssinia and the Egyptian Soudan.
In Nyasaland, Mr. Crawshay tells us, the Kudu is to be met with
practically all over the Protectorate, especially in the rugged wooded
highlands away from the haunts of men. In the Portuguese provinces on
the coast, according to Peters, it appears to be likewise generally
distributed. Proceeding to German East Africa, we find it also widely
diffused there, extending westwards up to Lake Tanganyika, although, as
Herr Matschie tells us, it is “nowhere common.” In British East Africa,
Mr. F. J. Jackson informs us, the Kudu is “a rare beast and only found
in certain places.” There are always “a few,” he says, “in the Teita
country west of Ndara and Kisigao, and on the banks of the Tsavo River,
down which it ranges from the head-waters to the Sabaki, and then north
up the Athi. All these districts are more or less undulating, very
rough, dry and stony, and covered with thick bush.” Further north, Graf
Teleki shot two Greater Kudus a few miles to the south of Lake Barengo,
and Dr. Donaldson Smith, in the course of his travels, saw one at El
Madu in about 4° N. lat. Mr. Arthur H. Neumann met with the Greater
Koodoo near Lake Rudolf, as related in his ‘Elephant-hunting,’ but
considers it very uncommon in the districts which he traversed. Passing
northwards to Somaliland, we find the Kudu more abundant on the higher
grounds. Capt. Swayne informs us that it inhabits the top of Wagar
Mountain and the Golis Range, which rise to about 6800 feet.
Lieut.-Col. H. D. Olivier, R.E., F.Z.S., who has recently returned from
a hunting excursion in Northern Somaliland, has favoured us with the
following notes:—
“I first came across the Greater Koodoo in the Golis Range, and I
also found it to the west of Hargeisa and near Milmil, as far
south as lat. 8°. The first locality, however, was the only one
where I pursued it, and it was there more abundant than in the two
last-mentioned places. The Golis Range consists of a series of
high bluffs under which lies a sort of undercliff forming a lower
plateau. This is grown over with gigantic Euphorbias and dense
brushwood, interspersed with huge boulders which have fallen from
the cliffs above. The Koodoo apparently lie up in very thick
patches of such jungle, at least I always found this the case, and
the first intimation of their presence was invariably a crash as
the quarry dashed off, generally out of sight. Their habit,
however, of stopping after a hundred yards or so, to examine the
cause of their alarm, is often fatal to them. They seem to lie
pretty close, and on one occasion I walked all round one without
discovering it, which we did eventually by finding its tracks at
the end of our circuit and following them up. The Koodoo browse on
the young shoots, and I have also found them eating the smaller
kinds of Euphorbias.
“At the time I was looking for them the rainy season was on, and I
think this much assisted us, for it rendered tracking easy and our
movements less noisy than they would have been in the dry weather.
During five days’ shooting we saw five good bucks, and secured
three of them. I found that when alarmed they did not travel very
far, and that by patiently following the tracks we generally came
up to them within a couple of miles. All the bucks I came across
were solitary, and the hinds seemed to live in small herds of from
three to seven or eight. A sportsman could not wish for a grander
sight than a startled Koodoo dashing off along the hillside, or
standing on the look-out on some point of vantage. Their flesh is
poor eating, and their hides are of little value from an
ornamental point of view, but the head and neck, and the ruff,
when well mounted, form a splendid trophy.”
The existence of the Kudu in Abyssinia has long been recorded, and it
would appear to be found all over the wilder and more wooded parts of
that country from 3000 to 9000 feet in altitude. According to Rüppell,
however, who in 1835 first identified it with the Cape animal, the Kudu
descends nearly to the sea-coast near Massoua. Heuglin has likewise
recorded its presence in the Egyptian territories of the Atbara,
Galabat, and Bogos north of Abyssinia, as well as in Kordofan and
in the more elevated districts of the White Nile. Thus we see that
throughout the eastern part of Africa the Greater Kudu is one of the
most widely distributed of the larger Antelopes.
On the West Coast of Africa the range of the Kudu is much more limited.
It occurs, no doubt, in German South-west Africa, and has been recorded
by Anchieta from Angola, but we are disposed to consider its alleged
existence in the Congo Valley as not yet proven. Nor are we aware of
any evidence of its occurrence further north on the West Coast.
It is singular that, while its near relatives the Eland and the
Bushbucks thrive in captivity, the Kudu never appears to accommodate
itself well to existence in European menageries. During his long
experience Sclater has had opportunities of seeing many Kudus in
various Zoological Gardens, but does not recollect a single case in
which such an animal appeared to be in perfect health and condition and
likely to do well. The first Kudu received by the Zoological Society
of London arrived in 1860 along with other animals from the Cape,
presented by the late Sir George Grey. It was a female and did not
live long. In June 1868 a young male, from Upper Nubia, was acquired
by purchase, but was also quickly lost. Nor have the Society been much
more successful with specimens acquired in 1873, 1874, 1880, and 1895,
although a female purchased in 1873 lived nearly seven years in their
Gardens.
The accompanying woodcut (fig. 114, p. 183) was prepared by Mr. Smit
from the pair of Kudus which were living together in the Society’s
Gardens from 1874 to 1879.
Wolf’s beautiful drawing of this Antelope (Plate XCVI.) was prepared
some twenty-five years ago for Sir Victor Brooke, and exhibited at
the Zoological Society’s Meeting in June 1875, in order to show the
differences between this species and the Lesser Kudu, but we regret to
say we have been unable to ascertain upon what materials it was based.
[Illustration:
Fig. 114.
Male and female Kudu.
(Garden Guide, 1879, p. 22.)
]
In the Gallery of the British Museum of Natural History at South
Kensington there is to be seen a very fine and large mounted male
specimen of the Greater Kudu, which was shot by Mr. F. C. Selous on
the Macloutsi River, Upper Limpopo, in May 1890, and presented by that
gentleman to the National Collection. This splendid animal stands 59
inches in height at the withers and its horns are 43 inches long in
a straight line. There are also other specimens of the Kudu (skins,
skulls, or horns) in the British Museum from Bogos-land, Abyssinia, the
Shiré Highlands of British Central Africa, and the Cape Colony.
_April_, 1900.
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XCVII.
_Wolf del._
_Hanhart imp._
The Lesser Kudu.
STREPSICEROS IMBERBIS.
_Published by R.H. Porter._
]
131. THE LESSER KUDU.
STREPSICEROS IMBERBIS, Blyth.
[PLATE XCVII.]
_Strepsiceros imberbis_, =Blyth=, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 55; =Sclater=, P.
Z. S. 1878, p. 441, 1884, p. 45, pl. iv., & p. 539; =Lort Phillips=,
P. Z. S. 1885, p. 931; =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 76
(1887); =Hunter=, in Willoughby’s E. Afr. p. 288 (1889); =Jentink=,
Notes Leyd. Mus. xii. pp. 211–221 (1890); =Flow & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 348
(1891); =Inverarity=, Journ. Bombay N. H. Soc. vi. p. 465, pl.
(1891); =Ward=, Horn Meas. 1892, p. 163, 1896, p. 208; =Jent.= Cat.
Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 172 (1892); =Sclater=, P.
Z. S. 1892, pp. 102, 118; =Swayne=, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 302; =Lugard=,
Rise E. Afr. Emp. i. p. 537 (1893); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 252
(1893); =id.= Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 274 (1894); =Jackson=, Big
Game Shooting, i. p. 304 (1894); =Matsch.= Säug. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p.
137 (1895); =Swayne=, Somaliland, p. 303 (1895); =Elliot=, Publ.
Chicago Mus., Zool. i. p. 134 (1897); =Pousarg.= Ann. Sci. Nat. iv.
p. 81 (1897); =Jackson=, P. Z. S. 1897, p. 454; =Ghika=, Pays des
Somalis, p. 182 (1898); =Matsch.= in Werther’s Die mittl. Hochländ.
Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p. 255 (1898); =Trouessart=, Cat. Mamm. ii. pt. 4,
p. 961 (1898); =De Winton=, P. Z. S. 1898, p. 768; =Inverarity=, in
Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa, p. 451 (1899).
_Strepsiceros kudu_, =Horsf.= Cat. Mamm. E. I. Comp. p. 170 (1851)
(part.).
_Strepsiceros kudu_, var., =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 143; =id.= Ann.
Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) viii. p. 225 (1851); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p.
133 (1852) (part.).
_Strepsiceros tendal_, =Gray=, Hand-l. Rum. p. 118 (1873) (_nec_
Fischer).
_Strepsiceros kudu abyssinicus_, =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. p. 176
(1869).
_Tragelaphus strepsiceros_, =Kirk=, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 195; =Brooke=,
P. Z. S. 1875, p. 470.
_Dwarf Koodoo_, =Kirk=, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 441.
Vernacular Names:—_Arreh_ ♂, _Adir_ ♀ (_Elliot_); _Godir_ (_Swayne_
and _Ghika_); _Kungu_ of the Swaheli in B. E. Afr. (_Jackson_).
_Adult male._ Height at the withers about 40 inches. Prevailing
colour in the body, head, and neck deep yellowish grey, blackish on
the muzzle, cheek, inter-ramal area, and belly; upper lip and chin
white, one or two white spots on the cheeks and a strongly defined
v-shaped mark at the base of the muzzle between the
eyes; ears whitish at the base and round the rim in front. Throat with
a conspicuous white patch at its base and fore extremity. A narrow
black stripe running along the nape of the neck from the occiput to
the withers; a white stripe passing along back from the withers to
the root of the tail. Sides of the body and hind-quarters marked with
from 11–14, sometimes confluent, white stripes, the first of these
crossing the shoulder, the last very short and close to the root of the
tail. Tail white beneath, black at the tip. Fore leg grey at the base,
the rest of the limb a rich fawn-colour from above the knee to the
hoofs, with a large white patch on the inner side at the base, white
behind the knee, a black patch just above the knee on the inner side;
cannon-bone blackish behind; pasterns black behind, marked with two,
sometimes confluent, white spots in front. Hind leg on the inner side
and front of the thighs down to the hock white, from the hock downwards
bright fawn; front of the pastern and inner side of the fetlock white.
A scanty but longish mane on the nape of the neck and withers, and a
short but thick crest of hair running along the back. Hair on the sides
of the neck and the throat very short, shorter than on the shoulders.
Horns of the male less divergent and with the spiral curvature much
closer and less open than in _S. capensis_, the ridge forming a
nearly straight axial line; length in a straight line about two feet,
round the curve about two feet six inches. The skull of an adult male
gives the following measurements:—Basal length 11·75 inches, orbit to
muzzle 6·75, greatest width 4·20.
_Female._ Like the male, but without horns, and smaller and
slighter in build; without a mane on the neck; white marks on the head
and throat less pronounced; head more uniformly fawn, and body of a
rich reddish fawn only tinged with grey; neck duller than the body.
_Young male._ Like the female, but assuming the grey coat of the
adult before it reaches its full size.
_Hab._ Somaliland and the maritime district of British East Africa.
The late Edward Blyth, well known for many years as the zealous
Curator of the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, was the first
to point out that the Kudu had a smaller brother, which, though
nearly allied, was specifically quite distinct from its better-known
relative. Although it is probable that Blyth was wrong in some of the
identifications of previous writers which he assigned to the present
species, he was undoubtedly correct in his general views on the
subject, and had the merit of assigning to the new _Strepsiceros_
the appropriate name _imberbis_, which at once distinguishes it
from its neck-maned ally.
It is singular that while the Greater Kudu, as we have just shown, has
such a widely-extended range in Africa, the Lesser Kudu is restricted
to a comparatively very small area, extending only, so far as is
certainly known, from Somaliland in the north to the coast-region of
British Central Africa in the south.
After Blyth the Smaller Kudu appears to have next attracted the
attention of Sir John Kirk. Writing to Sclater from Zanzibar, where
he was British Consul, in 1873, Sir John stated that he had obtained
from the Brava coast a living female Kudu which appeared to belong to
a smaller species than the ordinary form (_cf._ P. Z. S. 1873,
p. 195). Two years later, in June 1875, the late Sir Victor Brooke
exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London original
drawings by Wolf of the two Kudus, and pointed out the distinctions
between them (see P. Z. S. 1875, p. 470). These drawings are, as we
have every reason to believe, the originals from which the figures
(Plates XCVI. and XCVII. of the present work) were prepared by Smit.
In 1878 Sir John Kirk obtained from the Sultan of Zanzibar another
specimen of what he called the “Dwarf Kudu” from the southern part of
the Somali country, and sent it off to the Zoological Society (see P.
Z. S. 1878, p. 441). Unfortunately, however, the animal died on its way
home.
It was not, therefore, until 1884 that good specimens of the Lesser
Kudu were received in Europe, and a proper comparison could be made
between it and the larger and better-known species. This was done by
Sclater, and the results were stated in a communication made to the
Zoological Society on February 5th of that year. Sclater’s materials
were mainly a pair of animals which he had seen alive in the previous
October in the menagerie of his friend the late Mons. J. M. Cornély,
of Château Beaujardin, Tours. The young male of this pair, having
died, was kindly sent to London by M. Cornély and formed the subject
of a plate, drawn by Smit, which accompanies Sclater’s article on this
animal in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings.’ On the occasion of
reading his paper, Sclater was likewise able to exhibit an adult head
of the Lesser Kudu which had been sent home by Sir John Kirk, and a
pair of horns of a rather younger male of the same animal, belonging to
Mons. Cornély, which had been received by him through Mr. Hagenbeck, of
Hamburg, from Somaliland, along with the living pair of animals just
mentioned.
[Illustration:
Fig. 115.
Horns of Lesser and Greater Kudus.
(P. Z. S. 1884, p. 47.)
]
By the kind favour of the Zoological Society we are enabled to
reproduce here (fig. 115, p. 188) the comparative illustration of the
horns of two species of Kudu which accompanies Sclater’s paper on this
subject in the Society’s ‘Proceedings.’
Mr. E. Lort Phillips, F.Z.S., appears to have been one of the first
English sportsmen who personally met with the Lesser Kudu in Somaliland
and realized its difference from the Greater Kudu. This was in the
winter of 1884–85, when Mr. Lort Phillips visited that country along
with Messrs. James, Aylmer, and Thrupp. In his notes on the Antelopes
obtained during this journey (see P. Z. S. 1885, p. 931), Mr. Lort
Phillips informs us that the Lesser Kudu was met with on the northern
slopes of the high plateau of Northern Somaliland, where it resorts to
thick covert, and that it was not usually found far from water. Since
that date most, if not all, of the numerous British shooting-parties in
Somaliland have succeeded in obtaining heads of this beautiful species.
Capt. Swayne, our leading authority on the Antelopes of Somaliland,
writes of the Lesser Kudu as follows:—
“This is, to my mind, quite the most beautiful of all the Somali
Antelopes, and the skin is more brilliantly marked and the body
more gracefully shaped than that of the Greater Koodoo.