There is a paragraph (just one) in The Natural History of Antelopes (page 36 for those following along at home) that has puzzled me for a while, so I toss it amongst the largest gathering of folks knowledgeable about such matters I know of (that would be ya'll). The paragraph in its entirety:

quote:

In addition to these animals a unique population of eland inhabits the ericaceous or moorland zone of Mount Kilimanjaro. No specimens of this animal seem ever to have been collected and it is rarely seen, although alleged to have a rather long coat. I have myself seen its tracks on the moorland.

Now, I could understand an isolated population of duiker being overlooked, but how in hell can there be a distinct population of ELAND of which no specimen has been collected, and that I've never read about anywhere in 40 years of devouring everything about African varmints I could get my hands on??

Searching on the Web I found this:

quote:

In the afternoon it is worth taking a guided trek up the nearby Lent Group - a series of wind-eroded parasite cones and ridges from whose upper slopes you can gaze down to the plains of Kenya in the north. You may be lucky and see the elusive and rare Kilimanjaro eland (a long haired antelope) high in these remote uplands.

Anybody know anything about these animals??

Incidentally, The Natural History of Antelopes, by C.A. Spinage, published by Facts on File, is an interesting reference which I highly recommend.

Well, at least I feel less stupid, since 170+ people have viewed this and apparantly none of them had heard of these animals either...

Very interesting I wll see what I find on the net as well. Would also love to see a long haired eland.

I did a search using "mount kilimanjaro eland" and did not get much.

Me neither I tried all sorts of keywords but came back emty handed.

Your second paragraph is from an advertisement for a tourist lodge, and lists their contact information. Whjy not contact them and ask where they got the information?

Jeff

I can't comment on Kili but the mountains in Masailand have eland at 10,000 feet which I have seen so why wouldn't Kili have them?

Mark

Jeff, my bet would be that these are just East African or Patterson's eland living at higher altitudes than their Maasailand brothers and sisters living on the plains below.

Living at high altitude, where the weather is markedly colder and wetter, would explain the longer fur coats they apparently wear.

As an example of the phenomenon, I would point to the mountain buffalo living up in the Maasai highlands. They have longer, somewhat shaggier coats than the buffalo living on the flatlands below, but they are the same buffalo.

The DVD MOUNTAIN BUFFALO by Rainer Josch is about hunting the mountains of northern Tanz, not far south/west of Mt Kili.
He states the Eland that live upon the mountains migrate down to the plains during the wet season.
This could be hard to do on Kili as it is almost surrounded by small farms and plantations.