Giant Eland - Etymology

Etymology

The scientific name of the giant eland is Taurotragus derbianus, derived from three words: tauros, tragos, and derbianus. Tauros is Greek for a bull or bullock. Tragos is Greek for a male goat, and refers to the tuft of hair that grows in the eland's ear which resembles a goat's beard.

The giant eland is also called "Lord Derby's eland" in honour of Edward Smith-Stanley, the 13th Earl of Derby. It was due to his efforts that the giant eland was first introduced to England between 1835 and 1851. Lord Derby sent botanist Joseph Burke to collect animals, either alive or dead, from South Africa for his museum and menagerie. The first elands introduced in England were a pair of common elands, and what would later be identified as a giant eland bull. The details were recorded in Smith-Stanley's privately printed work, Cleanings from the Menagerie at Knowsley Hall. The Latin name indicates that it "belonged to" (given by the suffix -anus) Derby, hence derbianus.

Although the giant eland is somewhat larger than the common eland, the epithet 'giant' actually refers to its large horns. The name 'eland' is Dutch for "elk" or "moose". It has a Baltic source similar to the Lithuanian élnis, which means "deer". It was borrowed earlier as ellan (French) in the 1610s or elend (German).