​GNU, the Hottentot name for the large white-tailed South African antelope (q.v.), now nearly extinct, know to the Boers as the black wildebeest, and to naturalists as Connochaetes (or Catoblepas) gnu. A second and larger species is the brindled gnu or blue wildebeest (C. taurinus or Catoblepas gorgon), also known by the Bechuana name kokon or kokoon; and there are several East African forms more or less closely related to the latter which have received distinct names.