Hunting Kudu, Information on Kudu hunting

Kudu Hunting

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Kudu Hunting, in Africa

Kudu Hunting

Hunting Kudu

The Greater Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) is a woodland antelope found throughout eastern and southern Africa. Despite occupying such widespread territory, they are sparsely populated in most areas, due to a declining habitat, deforestation and hunting

They have a narrow body with long legs, and their coats can range from brown/bluish-grey to reddish-brown. They possess between 4–12 vertical white stripes along their torso. The head tends to be darker in colour than the rest of the body, and exhibits a small white chevron which runs between the eyes.

Male Greater Kudus tend to be much larger than the females, and vocalise much more, utilising low grunts, clucks, humming, and gasping. The males also have large manes running along their throats, and large horns with two and a half twists, which, were they to be straightened, would reach a length of 1 metre on average. However, the male horns do not begin to grow until the male is between the age of 6–12 months, twisting once at around 2 years of age, and not reaching the full two and a half twist until they are 6 years old.

Males weigh 190-270 kg while females weigh 120-210 kg. Females do not have horns while the bulls have horns that average 120 cm in length with the record being 187.64 cm.

Hunting Kudu

The range of the Greater Kudu extends from the east in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Eritrea and Kenya into the south where they are found in Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. They have also been introduced in small numbers into New Mexico. Their habitat includes thick bushveld, rocky hillsides, dry riverbeds and anywhere with a constant supply of water. They will occasionally venture onto plains only if there is a large abundance of bushes, but normally avoid such open areas to avoid becoming an easy target for their predators. Their diet consists of leaves, grass, shoots and occasionally tubers, roots and fruit (they are especially fond of oranges and tangerines).

During the day, Greater Kudus normally cease to be active and instead seek cover under woodland, especially during hot days. They feed and drink in the early morning and late afternoon, acquiring water from waterholes or roots and bulbs which have a high water content. Although they tend to stay in one area, the Greater Kudu may search over a large distance for water in times of drought, in southern Namibia where water is relatively scarce they have been known to travel extremely long distances in very short periods of time.

Female greater kudus live in small herds of six to twenty individuals along with their calves, though males tend to be mainly solitary, they sometimes form bachelor herds that consist of 4 to 8 young males (sometimes with an older bull as well). Rarely will a herd reach a size of forty individuals, partly because of the selective nature of their diet which would make foraging for food difficult in large groups. A herd's area can encompass 800 to 1,500 acres (6.1 km2), and spend an average of 54% of the day foraging for food.

Fully mature males will often fight other males by interlocking their horns with the other until one of them admits defeat and gives in. In rare circumstances this can sometimes result in both males being unable to free themselves from the other's horns, usually resulting in the death of both animals. Females may sometimes ward off males by biting them, due to their lack of horns.

Predators of the greater kudu generally consist of lions, leopards and hunting dogs. Although cheetahs also prey on greater kudus, they are unable to bring down a mature male, so usually go for the more vulnerable females and offspring. When a herd is threatened by predators, an adult (usually female) will issue a bark to alert the rest of the herd. Despite being very nimble over rocky hillsides and mountains, the greater kudu is not fast enough (and nor does it have enough stamina) to escape its main predators over open terrain, so instead relies on leaping woodland and cover which their predators have a hard time getting round, kudus have also been known to disappear into cover without being noticed to avoid chase.