Roan are predominantly grazers, but include a small amount of browse in their dry season diet.They are highly selective feeders, characterised by narrow muzzles with which they can select particular clusters of leaves from grass swards using the higher parts of grasses from 8 cm above ground – not close croppers like wildebeest or zebra. They select climax green grass species with a high nutrient content and those that have a high leaf to stem ratio. In any given locality, two or three grass species make up the bulk of diet.

Sable are predominantly grazers, but include a small amount of browse in their dry season diet.They are highly selective feeders, characterised by narrow muzzles with which they can select particular clusters of leaves from grass swards. They prefer medium height green grasses and have a narrow rasnge of acceptable grass species.

Tsessebe are grazers, they are not known to browse. They are highly selective feeders, characterised by narrow muzzles with which they can select particular clusters of leaves from grass swards. They show a strong predilection for young green grass shoots up to 60cm tall. They appear to select for stage of grass growth rather than species per se.

Grass species

A list of grass species eaten by roan, sable and tsessebe has been compiled from studies by Erb (1993), Grobler (1974, 1981b), Huntly (1972), Joubert (1976), Perrin and Taolo (1999), Wilson (1975) and Wilson and Hirst (1977). Because most of the studies have been done in restricted localities, the list is unlikely to be comprehensive.

woody species

Wilson (1975) noted that roan in northern Transvaal remained in better body condition than sable because of being able to switch to browsing in critical periods. A list of woody species eaten by roan and sable has been compiled from the studies of Erb (1993), Grobler (1974), Joubert (1976), and Wilson (1969).