Kudu dung-spitting (Bokdrol Spoeg in
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
) is a
sport
Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...
practiced by the Afrikaner community in South Africa. In the competition small, hard pellets of
dung from the
kudu
The kudus are two species of antelope of the genus '' Tragelaphus'':
* Lesser kudu, ''Tragelaphus imberbis'', of eastern Africa
* Greater kudu, ''Tragelaphus strepsiceros'', of eastern and southern Africa
The two species look similar, th ...
antelope
The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia.
Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals ...
, are
spat, with the farthest distance reached being the winner.
Kudu dung-spitting is popular enough to have an annual world championship competition, with the formal sport beginning in 1994. Contests are held at some community bazaars, game festivals or tourism shows in the
bushveld
The Bushveld (from af, bosveld, af, bos 'bush' and af, veld) is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. It encompasses most of Limpopo Province and a small part of ...
,
Natal
NATAL or Natal may refer to:
Places
* Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil
* Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa
** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843)
** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...
and
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
.
Unlike many similar sports, the distance is measured from the marker to the place the dung pellet comes to rest, rather than where it initially hit the ground.
The world record in the sport is a distance of set by Shaun van Rensburg
[The Herald, South Africa, August 1, 2006, quoted in Private Eye #1170] of
Addo.
It is said that hunters began using the pellets in spitting competitions to "retaliate" at their prey, as the kudu is a notoriously difficult animal to hunt, and infamous for leaving a trail of dung pellets while managing to elude the hunter.
"Similar" sports
Records are also kept for
cherry pit spitting
Cherry pit spitting is the act of spitting, or ejecting, the pit (the seed) of a cherry from one's mouth with great speed so as to send the pit a great distance. Spitting cherry pits is an amateur sport; there are no known professional leagues ...
, watermelon seed spitting, prune pit spitting,
brown cricket spitting and tobacco juice spitting.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
's Lady of The Lake Festival in County Fermanagh
County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland.
The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 a ...
.
References
Feces
Individual sports
Sport in Africa
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