Scientific Name:  Connochaetes gnu
Common Name: Black Wildebeest, White-Tailed Gnu
Distribution: Highveld, South Africa
Description: The black wildebeest is dark brown to black in color. Both sexes become lighter in coat color in the summer, and develop shaggier coats in the winter. Possesses a bushy beard and mane. It also has a mane that stands up from its neck, rather than draping across the neck, like that of Connochaetes taurinus. This bristly mane is cream to white in color and black at the tips, the beard is black in color and stretches only along the lower jaw, not the length of the neck, as in Connochaetes taurinus. Paired horns curve down, forward and then up, like hooks, and are up to 78 cm in length (slightly thinner and shorter in females). The tail is long and white.
Difference in Sex: males being darker in color than females.
Average Weight: 110 to 157 kg
Habitat: Open grassland and bushveld.
Habits: When alarmed, the animal swishes its long tail back and forth so vigorously that the loud whistling or hissing sound it creates can be heard for almost a kilometre. This is part of a ritual that may include loud snorting, highkicking with the back legs, and eventually a comical flight in which the herd will gallop off, wheel around, retrace its steps and halt, facing the real or imagined enemy.
Main feeding time: Day
Size: Shoulder height (m) 1,2 m; (f) 1 m, mass (m) 180 kg, (f) 160 kg. Both sexes have horns.
Gestation: 8 - 8.5 months
Number of young at birth:  single calf 
Communication:
Age: 20 years
Diet: bushes and shrubs
Enemies:
Interesting facts:
Credits: Photo Copyright Brent Huffman, for more detailed information please visit www.ultimateungulate.com