Editing Wildebeest (section)

==Uses and interaction with humans==
Wildebeest provide several useful animal products. The hide makes good-quality leather and the flesh is coarse, dry and rather hard.<ref name=nowak/> Wildebeest are killed for food, especially to make [[biltong]] in Southern Africa. This dried game meat is a delicacy and an important food item in Africa.<ref name=ulfstrand /> The meat of females is more tender than that of males, and is the most tender during the autumn season.<ref name=hoffman /> Wildebeest are a regular target for illegal meat hunters because their numbers make them easy to find. Cooks preparing the wildebeest carcass usually cut it into 11 pieces. The estimated price for wildebeest meat was about US$0.47 per {{convert|1|kg||||}} around 2008.<ref name=Nidabelema1>{{cite journal|last=Ndibalema|first=Vedasto G.|author2=Songorwa, Alexander N. |title=Illegal meat hunting in Serengeti: dynamics in consumption and preferences|journal=African Journal of Ecology|year=2008|volume=46|issue=3|pages=311–319|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2028.2007.00836.x|doi-access=free}}</ref> The silky, flowing tail of the black wildebeest is used to make [[fly-whisk]]s or ''chowries''.<ref name=nowak/>

Wildebeest benefit the ecosystem by increasing soil fertility with their excreta. They are economically important for human beings, as they are a major tourist attraction. They also provide important products, such as leather, to humans.<ref name=adw>{{cite web|last=Geraci |first=G. |title=''Connochaetes taurinus'' : blue wildebeest |url=http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Connochaetes_taurinus/ |work=University of Michigan Museum of Zoology|publisher=Animal Diversity Web|access-date=22 January 2014}}</ref> Wildebeest, however, can also have a negative impact on humans. Wild individuals can be competitors of commercial livestock, and can transmit diseases and cause epidemics among animals, particularly domestic cattle. They can also spread [[Ticks of domestic animals|ticks]], [[lungworm]]s, [[tapeworm]]s, flies, and [[Paramphistomum|paramphistome fluke]]s.<ref name=talbot/>

=== Cultural depictions ===
The wildebeest is depicted on the [[coat of arms]] of the [[Natal Province|Province of Natal]] and later [[KwaZulu-Natal]] in South Africa. Over the years, the South African authorities have issued several stamps displaying the animal and the South African Mint has struck a two-cent piece with a prancing black wildebeest.<ref name=mammal>{{cite journal|last=von Richter|first=W.|title=Connochaetes gnou|journal=[[Mammalian Species]]|year=1974|issue=50|pages=1–6}}</ref>

Movies and television shows also feature wildebeests, including ''[[Khumba]]'' (Mama V), ''[[The Wild]]'' (Kazar and his minions), ''[[All Hail King Julien]]'' (Vigman Wildebeest), ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' (Newton the Gnu), ''[[The Great Space Coaster]]'' (newscaster Gary Gnu), and ''[[The Lion King]]'' (the wildebeest stampede that resulted in Mufasa's death).

[[Michael Flanders]] wrote a humorous song called "[[The Gnu]]", which was very popular when he performed it, with [[Donald Swann]], in a revue called ''[[At the Drop of a Hat]]'', which opened in London on 31 December 1956.

In the 1970s, [[United Kingdom|British]] [[tea]] brand [[Typhoo]] ran a series of [[television]] advertisements featuring an animated anthropomorphic gnu character.

[[File:Heckert_GNU_white.svg|thumb|The wildebeest is the mascot of the free software project [[GNU]].]]
The wildebeest is the mascot of the [[GNU Project]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/graphics/agnuhead.html|title=A GNU Head|access-date=15 July 2017|date=29 March 2015|publisher=[[GNU Project]]}}</ref> and [[GNU]] operating system.

In the ''Llama Llama'' picture-book series by [[Anna Dewdney]], an anthropomorphised wildebeest named Nelly Gnu is the main character, Llama Llama's best friend, and is also featured in a title of her own, ''Nelly Gnu and Daddy Too''.<ref name="nellygnu">{{Cite book|title=Amazon - ''Nelly Gnu and Daddy Too''|isbn = 978-0670012275|last1 = Dewdney|first1 = Anna|year = 2014| publisher=National Geographic Books}}</ref>

In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' series, Discworld analogues of wildebeests, which inhabited Howonderland, were called "bewilderbeest".