The greater and lesser kudus are classified in the mammal tribe Tragelaphini of the subfamily Tragelaphinae, whose horn cores are keeled, and the top of the skull is horizontal. It contains the greater kudu, lesser kudu, lowland nyala, mountain nyala, eland, bongo, bushbuck and sitatunga. Based on nuclear DNA analyses, the lesser kudus and lowland nyala collectively were the first to separate from an ancestral form 13,8 million years ago, to be followed in sequence by the bushbucks, bongo, greater kudus, sitatungas and elands.
Until recently, it was believed that all the antelopes with spiralled horns were species or subspecies of the genus Tragelaphus, and that there was only a lesser kudu (Tragelaphus imber-bis) and a greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), based on superficial, physical appearance. Recent multivariate analyses of the…
