Mating can occur at anytime of year, but the peak mating periods occur in during the rainy season (Estes 1991). This is most likely due to the plains being full of grasses and the eland thus congregating together to feed on the grasses. Since females and males tend to travel in separate groups, this would indeed seem like the best time for mating to occur. To determine if a female is in estrus a male will chase her closely and will test the female's urine to see whether or not she is in estrus (Estes 1991). In order to make sure that a female mates with the most fit and dominant male, she will sometimes run away from the initial male attempts at mating thus attracting other males and inevitably a larger male will win out in the end (Estes 1991). Male eland, however, do not even form mating territories, rather they will assert their individual dominance towards each other (Jarman and Jarman 1979). Dominance is usually asserted through displays that include olfactory, visual, and physical behavior (Estes 1991). Fighting is a last resort and is rare due to the often ease at which subordinate animals give in, but it does occur (Estes 1991). This is where the thickness of the thickness of the male eland's horns helps. Crashing together of the horns between two 600 kg animals would certainly cause them to break if they were not very strong. By keeping close to the female herds, males do not need to keep a territory that the females will occasionally cross into (Jarman and Jarman 1979). Since the mating season is almost year round with no true rutting period, there is no gain in males defending females and the abundance of food makes it impossible to defend a food source (Jarman and Jarman 1979). It is for these reasons that the eland is considered to be in a hierarchical promsicuous mating system (Jarman and Jarman 1979).