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You are here: Home / Animals / How Did the Wildebeest Get its Name and What Does it Mean?

How Did the Wildebeest Get its Name and What Does it Mean?

June 10, 2020 by Karen Hill

The name Wildebeest means “wild beast” in Dutch, but you can’t believe every tag the Europeans gave animals, see gophers, aardvarks, groundhogs, etc.

How Did the Wildebeest Get its Name

Also called the gnu, the wildebeest a hooved, or ungulate mammal.

The wildebeest is a large antelope that roams through grassy plains of southern Africa, grazing in huge, usually placid herds.

They come in two flavors, the blue wildebeest, which is quite common, and the black wildebeest, which has been hunted down to about 10,000 surviving members.

So why the “wilde beest” name? Well, they look scary, in the same way that American buffalo do.

They have massive bodies and bristly faces. When approached by a human, wildebeests will dash away to a safe distance, and then suddenly wheel around to stare menacingly back at the intruder.

It’s a scary thing to witness, but if you don’t come any nearer, you probably won’t have any trouble.

We suppose you probably wouldn’t want to be in their way if they were stampeding, but spread the gnus, the “wilde beest” has been given a bum rap.

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Filed Under: Animals

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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