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kudu

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.04 sec.
kudu (k`d), short-haired African antelope antelope, name applied to a large number of hoofed, ruminant mammals of the cattle family (Bovidae), which also includes the sheep and goats. The North American pronghorn is sometimes called an antelope, but belongs to a separate, related family (Antilocapridae).
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, genus Strepsiceros. The greater kudu, Strepsiceros strepsiceros, has a reddish brown coat with thin vertical white stripes on its sides. It is among the largest of the antelopes; males may reach a shoulder height of 5 ft (150 cm) and a weight of 500 lb (230 kg). The male has widely spread spiral horns with up to three full twists, sometimes exceeding 5 ft in length; it has a long throat fringe and a white chevron on the muzzle. Females are smaller and hornless, without a beard or nose markings. The greater kudu inhabits hilly brush country of E and S Africa, ranging to altitudes above the treeline. Members of this species are always found near water and are excellent swimmers. Kudus are primarily browsers, feeding on leaves and young shoots, but they may graze as well. Females and their young travel in small bands; males are solitary and join the band only during the mating season. The lesser kudu, S. imberbia, reaches a shoulder height of about 3 ft (90 cm) and has more numerous stripes and no throat fringe; it inhabits desert and semidesert areas of eastern Africa. Kudus are classified in the phylum Chordata Chordata (kôrdā`tə,–dä`–)
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, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Bovidae.

kudu

Enlarge picture
Greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros)
(credit: Jeanne White—The National Audubon Society Collection)
Slender African antelopes of the genus Tragelaphus. The greater kudu lives in small groups in hilly bush country or open woods. It stands about 51 in. (1.3 m) high at the shoulder and has a fringe on the throat and a crest of hair on the neck and back. It is reddish brown to blue-gray, with a white mark between the eyes and narrow vertical white stripes on the body. The male has long, corkscrewlike horns. The lesser kudu lives in pairs or small groups in open bush country; it stands about 40 in. (1 m) high, has more tightly spiraled horns, and has two white patches on the throat and no throat fringe. Both species browse on shrubs and leaves.


kudu, koodoo
either of two spiral-horned antelopes, Tragelaphus strepsiceros (greater kudu) or T. imberbis (lesser kudu), which inhabit the bush of Africa


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Mingled with the sounds he knew, there were strange sounds--weird sounds which he never heard until after Kudu had sought his lair below the far edge of the big water-sounds which belonged to Goro, the moon--and to the mysterious period of Goro's supremacy.
When the sun shone again upon the second day and a wide, open plain let the full heat of Kudu flood the chilled, brown body, Tarzan's spirits rose; but it was still a sullen, surly brute that moved steadily onward into the south where he hoped again to pick up the trail of the Germans.
 
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