Kudu Kudu The kudus are two species of antelope of the genus "Tragelaphus": The name of the animal was imported into English in the 18th century from isiXhosa "iqhude", via Afrikaans "koedoe" part zebra part deer. Kudu, or koodoo, is the Khoikhoi name for this antelope. "Tragos" (Greek) denotes a he-goat and "elaphos" (Greek) a deer. "Strepho" (Greek) means "twist", and "strephis" is "twisting". "Keras" (Greek) refers to the horn of the animal. Lesser kudus come from the savanna near "Acacia" and "Commiphora" shrubs. They have to rely on thickets for protection, so they are rarely seen in the open. Their
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