Greater kudu in private farms and conservancies in southern Africa, in particular in Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, where they are popular amongst trophy hunters. Greater 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 declining habitat, deforestation and poaching. The greater kudu is one of two species commonly known as kudu, the other being the lesser kudu, "T. imberbis". Kudu, or koodoo, is the Khoikhoi name for this antelope. "Tragos" (Greek) denotes a he-goat and "elaphos" (Greek) a deer. "Strepho"
Lesser kudu just the lesser kudu by American zoologist Edmund Heller, the type species being "A. strepsiceros". However, the lesser kudu is now placed in "Tragelaphus". In 2005, Sandi Willows-Munro (of the University of KwaZulu-Natal) and colleagues carried out a mitochondrial analysis of the nine "Tragelaphus" species. mtDNA and nDNA data were compared. The results showed that the tribe Tragelaphini is monophyletic with the lesser kudu basal in the phylogeny, followed by the nyala ("T. angasii"). On the basis of mitochondrial data, the lesser kudu separated from its sister clade around 13.7 million years ago. However, the nuclear data show that lesser