Technical Note – in the last post I used my newly installed Video Press which requires you to click on a link and then view the video. I learned that some people missed the links, so missed the videos. In this post, I returned to uploading from You Tube because the video shows right on the page. I don’t like You Tube because the last screen is always a sort of commercial for other videos by different people which I find distracting, maybe you do also? Any preferences? Suggestions?
When Heather and I were in Etosha this past November, 2016, we were priviledged to meet a variety of grass eaters from the tiniest Steenbok to the great Wildebeest and Oryx. American poet Louise Erdich intoduces one of her poems with a quote from a Native American Medicine Woman as follows:
The antelope are strange people…they are beautiful to look at, and yet they are tricky….They appear and disappear; they are like shadows on the plains. Because of their great beauty, young men sometimes follow the antelope and are lost forever….
Are you ready to get lost among the antelopes of Etosha? Let your eyes and heart take them in. Walk softly. Keep to the shadows when you can.
This little guy, a Steenbok, is one of the smallest of the African antelopes. Notice the beautiful ears. We spotted him among a group of impala. Steenboks are no more than 2 feet high and are usually single, although they sometimes go in pairs.
Springbok are plentiful in Etosha. They are also small, but larger than the Steenbok. They are graceful with curving horns. I think they are called Springbok because they can be seen “pronking” – leaping straight up in the air, bounding stiff legged over the grasses. Whatever their reasons for pronking, the action appears as utterly joyful “springing” when you witness it. In Afrikaans, the work “pronk” means “to show off.”
A Springbok in profile. Notice how the branches reflect the delicacy of the Springbok – the horns, the shadow, the delicacy of the markings on this little antelope. Watch springbok in action in the video below.
You will always see Springboks in a herd. And when the day is very hot you will see them sharing the shade of a thorn tree as they do in this photo.
The Impala is a medium sized antelope. The Impala in Namibia are black-faced impala, in contrast to their cousins who are white-faced. When we were in Etosha in 2012 we found a small herd of Impala sheltering among mopane trees. Note the leaf shape – green wings.
Here is a male Impala. Only the males have horns. Every type of antelope has differently shaped horns.
And here is a female. Impala are about the size of deer in American forests.
These Red Hartebeest are migratory antelope. We saw them walking across the white pan probably heading for a waterhole. They have long narrow muzzles which enable them to graze selectively. Notice the bushy tail. These are larger antelope reaching a size of almost five feet (from the ground to the shoulder).
These are Greater Kudus. The Lesser Kudu does not have the “beard” you see on the throats of these Kudus. The one on the left must be a young male, as the females to not have horns. They also have white stripes on their bodies. They are actually more grey than they appear in this photo, probably due to the angle of the light. I have eaten Kudu steak on several occasions and can testify that their flesh is delicious. In the video below you see the grey color of the Kudu. Notice the “beard” and the large ears of this antelope.
Here is a beautiful group of Kudu – one male and several females
There are two kinds of zebras – one, the Hartmann’s zebra, has stripes all the way down its legs. The other, Burchell’s zebra, has stripes only partially down its legs. Can you tell what kind of zebra this fine specimen is? Zebras are not antelopes. They belong to the Equidae family, that is, the horses and asses. But they take their place here among the antelopes because they are grass-eaters.
Here is a baby zebra. . No two zebras are marked exactly the same so the markings on this baby are different from any other zebra’s markings. The word “zebra” is of Portuguese origin, zevra, meaning wild ass. Even the Afrikaans word for zebra, vlaktesebra, seems to be derived from the Portuguese. The video below shows zebras at one of Etosha’s waterholes.
This Oryx peering out from behind a thorn tree probably lost part of his horn in a fight. Oryx are able to live without water for long periods of time. They are perfectly desert adapted. They eat coarse desert grasses, dig up tubers, roots, and bulbs along with melons and wild cucumbers, all of which provide moisture.A number of Oryx, also called Gemsbok, at a waterhole.
Oryx stand a little higher than a zebra. Their beautiful markings allow them to blend in with their surroundings. It’s as though they are dressed as winter trees – gray with shadows of branches, patches of light. They have sturdier bodies than the smaller antelopes, but nevertheless, retain grace. Whenever I would see one, it would take my breath away. They somehow have the magic of the mythical unicorn. Both males and females have the long, spear like horns. The video below follows an oryx on his way to a waterhole. Notice the differences in size when he gets in view of a springbok.
There was a baby Wildebeest among the adults in this herd.
We had opportunity to watch Wildebeest several times. We were both struck by the ancient nobility of these large antelopes. The wildebeest we observed are the Blue Wildebeest so named for their blue-gray color. They are smaller than the Black Wildebeest and their horns are different. Wildebeest are reminiscent to me of the American Buffalo. Notice the delicate legs which almost seem out of proportion to the heavy body.
The video below follows one Wildebeest among a herd. In the first frame you can see the baby wildebeest – again, it was the silence, the majestic intent of their procession across the pan which impressed us.
We passed close by this wildebeest who was grazing in a small grove. He reminds me of the great bison which are painted on the caves of Lascaux.
Giraffes are the tallest mammal on the earth. They are not antelopes; they have their own family with just 2 species, the giraffe and the okapis. The giraffes in Etosha are called Masai giraffes with tan patches on an ochre coat. Their long necks make them perfect browsers. This one is watching us take the photo.
Movie stars would envy these eyelashes.Giraffes seem to float along as they move. They embody elegant grace.
This fellow came out from the trees right in front of us. Heather’s camera caught him in a nimble mid-trot. Like the zebra, no two giraffes have the same markings. The two videos below show the giraffe browsing among the highest branches of a mopane tree and among the branches of a thorn tree. The giraffe is one of the reasons the thorn tree developed such fierce thorns, however, the long, muscular tongue of the giraffe is skillful at picking between the thorns.
So I hope you have enjoyed your tiny look at Etosha’s antelopes. If your soul is still lost among these beautiful grass eaters, let it wander. Far better for your soul to be among the hooved ones, than walking a city street. Of course there are many other types of antelopes. It is my hope one day to see an Eland in person. If you have a copy of my book, God is a Lion, check out these two poems, Stars Read the Hoof Scriptures, p. 441, and Namibian Springbok, p. 444. The next post will be entitled “Silver Giants of the Desert” – now who are they? Stay tuned to see.
March 19, 2016 @ 3:25 am
These photos and videos are fantastic! Thank you for explaining a little bit about the different grass eaters.