Prefers medium-height pasture and selects the leafy parts of grass. Drinks daily, though under drought conditions it can withstand long periods without water. Behaviour Gregarious and territorial, and equally diurnal or nocturnal. Territorial bulls mark out their area with urine and dung in regular places, as well as grunting and rubbing the soil with horns and preorbital glands. They defend their territory from elevated positions such as termite mounds.
Old bulls are solitary, whereas young males usually rule a group of females with their progeny.
The groups are composed of up to 10 cows with their calves, though in the dry season several groups may aggregate in tall grass areas to form herds of hundreds, sometimes associated with wildebeest and zebra, to disperse again with the onset of rains. They show a trend towards sedentariness, permanently dwelling in a male's territory, who will rule the group, or either roaming through several males' territories. When males are two years old, they leave the maternal group and gather in herds of up to 30 bachelors, occasionally including old bulls dispossessed of their territory. At the age of 3 they start competing for their own territory. Their longevity is 10-12 years.