If there is less than 70 cm of rain the eland is absent. A small population inhabits the Kilimanjaro moorlands. Yes, the giant eland is smaller than the common eland. Largest of all antelope, eland are impressively massive. Both males and females have spiking horns that grow with considerable twist straight back from the facial plane.
Elands generally are light tan, but males darken to grey with age.
Some common elands have light stripes on the shoulders, while giants have a dozen or so thin, vertical body stripes and a white chevron between the eyes. The tail has a black tuft and commons have a black mark banded with white on the back of each upper foreleg. The short black mane merges into a black dorsal stripe and giants have a dark band down the base of the neck, backed by a white stripe. They take fruits, seed pods, flowers, leaves and bark, and they even dig tubers. Eland are known to move about a large area, but the dates and migratory patterns have never been studied.