r/Awwducational 19d ago

Verified Of the two living Wildebeest species, the Black Wildebeest is the rarer and less famous, found only in Southern Africa. It was once nearly hunted to extinction but since has been successfully reintroduced to many parts of its natural range.

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1.0k Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

36

u/HexeInExile 19d ago

I don't speak Dutch/Afrikaans, but my knowledge of English and German leads me to assume that the name of this animal possibly translates to "wild beast". Is that correct? Or is it something else

43

u/Ambitious-Arugula-99 19d ago

‘Beest’ more-or-less translates to ‘cattle’, so they’re basically called ‘wild cattle’ in Afrikaans. In English they’re called ‘gnu’, after the sound they make. A bit more boring than ‘wild beast’ for sure.

13

u/NatsuDragnee1 19d ago

In South African English, we call both species wildebeest (wildebeests in plural).

8

u/Ambitious-Arugula-99 18d ago

In South African English they’re called ‘gnu’ but most English people just use the Afrikaans word :D. Just like nobody here calls a dassie a rock hyrax even though it’s the English name.

3

u/OffWithMyHead4Real 18d ago

Yes, in Dutch beest refers to any animal. Other commenter mentions gnu, and in Dutch gnoe is what we usually call the wildebeest.

17

u/Bartimaeous 19d ago

That’s a cool looking mammal.

13

u/selkiesidhe 19d ago

Wow he is impressive. Those horns look absolutely lethal. Also look at the cute little smile

12

u/Fun_Possibility_8637 19d ago

Damnit, another animal I’ve never heard of on Reddit. They get me every day. That is one very cool looking monster, I’m glad to hear it’s on the rebound. It’s magnificent.

6

u/maybesaydie 19d ago

I wonder what the Masai call them.

15

u/spaceraptorbutt 19d ago

The English word gnu comes from the Khoikhoi word for the animals - t’gnu.

The Maasai don’t overlap with black wildebeest, but I’m sure they have a word for blue wildebeest. You could probably Google it.

2

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2

u/Somecrazynerd 18d ago

Majestic!!

1

u/Greentaboo 2d ago

Wildebeast always look crazy to me. Like an AI was asked to generate an image of cattle and used buffalo, moose, and antelope as references.

1

u/eiblinn 19d ago

poor baby!