Habitat and Distribution
Common elands live on the open plains of southern Africa and along the foothills of the great southern African plateau. The species extends north into Ethiopia and most arid zones of Sudan, east into western Angola and Namibia, and south to South Africa. However, there is a low density of elands in Africa due to poaching and human settlement.
Elands prefer to live in semi-arid areas that contain many shrub-like bushes, and often inhabit grasslands, woodlands, sub-desert, bush, and mountaintops with altitudes of about 15,000 ft (4600 m). Elands do, however, avoid forests, swamps and deserts. The places inhabited by elands generally contain Acacia, Combretum, Commiphora, Diospyros, Grewia, Rhus and Ziziphus trees and shrubs; some of these also serve as their food.
Elands can be found in many National Parks and reserves today, including Nairobi and Tsavo National Park, Masai Mara NR, Kenya; Serengeti, Ruaha and Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania; Kagera National Park, Rwanda; Nyika National Park, Malawi; Luangwa Valley and Kafue National Park, Zambia; Hwange and Matobo National Park, Tuli Safari Area, Zimbabwe; Kruger National Park, Giant's Castle and Suikerbosrand NR, South Africa.
They live on home ranges that can be 200–400 km2 for females and juveniles and 50 km2 for males.
Read more about this topic: Common Eland
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