Greater kudu
Tragelaphus strepsiceros, 1910
About the object
This huntsman's trophy is one of 360 objects that make up the museum's extensive collection of hunting trophies. It is likely that Hans Hudemann, an officer of the Schutztruppe ("Protection Force") in German colonial East Africa, shot the animal himself. Hudemann brought the trophies, together with weapons, back to Freiburg in 1909. His widow, Constance Hudemann, donated these trophies to the museum in 1964 by way of her son-in-law, Prof. Dr. Jeschek.
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Greater Kudu bulls pare endowed striking horns. The horns form as a result of dead cells that have undergone a process of keratinisation. Keratin is the same material that is present in the nails, hair, claws, hooves and spines or quills of mammals, as well as the beaks of birds. Antlers - for example deer antlers - are composed of bone and other substances. Antlers are shed and subsequently regrown every year. In contrast, a horn consists of a hollow coating of proteins and keratin surrounding a core of live bone. The bone itself is encased in a permeable layer of skin, which allows blood to flow to it. Horns continue growing throughout the life of the animal and are never shed. As is the case in the majority of antelope species, both sexes have horns; females’ horns tend to be smaller. Horns are considered a valuable material and were used as traditional drinking receptacles as well as instruments, such as the shofar, a traditional musical instrument from the Middle East. If the horns of a hunted animal were especially large and splendid in appearance, they were kept and displayed as hunting trophies. Horns were also used as everyday items, e.g. as for buttons, spoons and knife handles, as well as fertilizer. The use of horns as an everyday material has been displaced by the ubiquity of plastics.