Khoisan rock art. Photo © Lukas Kaffer
Links to the images that inspired this bio-insight:
Rock-paintings of the common eland by the Khoisan seem cartoonish in depicting a whitish head and neck in contrast to the brownish body.
No such blaze is mentioned in zoological descriptions of this, one of the plainest-coloured of antelopes.
The solution to this puzzle is that the fur of the cheeks and side of the neck of the common eland possesses a peculiar type of ‘matt-sheen’ which is apparent only from a distance.
In this aspect of the typical appearance of the species, the portrayals in modern field-guidebooks are less realistic than those in primitive rock art.
Robin and the Honey Badger, 22 March 2016