Diet
Primarily a herbivore, the giant eland eats grasses and foliage, as well as other parts of a plant. In the rainy season, they browse in herds and feed on grasses. They can eat coarse, dry grass and weeds if nothing else is available. They eat fruits too, such as plums. A study in South Africa showed that an eland's diet consists of 75% shrubs and 25% grasses, with highly varying proportions. They often use their long horns to break off branches.
They need regular intake of water in their diet. That is the reason for their preference of a place with a water source nearby. However, some adaptations they possess help them to survive even in the lack of water by maintaining a sufficient quantity of it in their body. They produce very dry dung compared to domestic cattle. In deserts, they can get their required water from the moisture of succulent plants. Another way in which they conserve water is by resting in the day, and feeding in the night, so that they minimize the water quantity required to cool themselves.
Several studies have investigated the eland's diet. A study of giant elands in the Bandia Natural reserve in Senegal revealed that the most important and most preferred plants were Acacia species, Terminalia species, Azadirachta indica, Combretum species, Danielia olliveri, Lonchocarpus laxiflorus, Maytenus senegalensis, Prosopis africana, Pterocarpus erinaceus, Saba senegalensis and pods of Piliostigma thonningii. Another study in Sudan showed that western giant elands preferred Cassia tora the most, and it was the most abundant legume there.
In 2010, histological analysis of the feces of South African western giant elands was done in the Niokolo Koba National Park and in the Bandia National Reserve. In both studies leaves, shoots of woody plants, and fruits were found to be the three major components. The other components that appeared in minor proportions were forbs and grasses, generally below five percent of the mean fecal volume. They were seen eating most foliage from Boscia angusifolia, Grewia bicolor, Hymenocardia acida, and Ziziphus mauritiana, and the fruits of Acacia and Strychnos spinosa. In the Bandia Reserve, differences in diet were marked among age classes. The conclusions were that in the dry season the eland was a pure browser, consuming grasses in small amounts.
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