Interesting facts about common Eland by weird square
Channel: Animal Square
Date: 2018-01-19

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The common eland (Taurotragus oryx), also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. It is a species of the family Bovidae and genus Taurotragus. It was first described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1766. An adult male is around 1.6 metres (5') tall at the shoulder (females are 20 centimetres (8") shorter) and can weigh up to 942 kg (2,077 lb) with an average of 500–600 kg (1,100–1,300 lb), 340–445 kg (750–981 lb) for females). It is the second largest antelope in the world, being slightly smaller on average than the giant eland.
Mainly a herbivore, its diet is primarily grasses and leaves. Common elands form herds of up to 500 animals, but are not territorial. The common eland prefers habitats with a wide variety of flowering plants such as savannah, woodlands, and open and montane grasslands; it avoids dense forests. It uses loud barks, visual and postural movements and the flehmen response to communicate and warn others of danger. The common eland is used by humans for leather, meat, and rich, nutritious milk, and has been domesticated in many areas.
It is native to Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe but is no longer present in Burundi. While the common eland's population is decreasing, it is classified as "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The scientific name of the common eland is Taurotragus oryx, composed of three words: tauros, tragos and oryx. Tauros is Greek for a bull or bullock, meaning the same as the Latin taurus. Tragos is Greek for a male goat, referring to the tuft of hair that grows in the eland's ear and its resemblance to a goat's beard. Oryx is Latin and Greek (generally orygos) for pickaxe, referring to the pointed horns of North African antelopes like the common eland and scimitar-horned oryx.
The name 'eland' is Dutch for "elk" or "moose". It has a Baltic source similar to the Lithuanian élnis, which means "deer". It was borrowed earlier as ellan (French) in the 1610s or Elend (German).[8][9] When Dutch settlers came to the Cape Province, they named it after the large, herbivorous moose. In Dutch the animal is called "Eland antelope" to distinguish it from the moose, which is found in the northern boreal forests. Animal planet | Discovery | Netflix | Documentary | Animal World
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