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Project Noah Nature School
Eudorcas thomsonii
The graceful Thomson's gazelle is the most common gazelle in East Africa. It’s coat is light brown with white underparts and a distinctive black stripe on the side. A very vulnerable animal in the savanna, its best defense are its fine senses of smell, hearing and sight and its bounding leaps used to startle predators.
Savanna and grassland. Distribution: East Africa, especially the Serengeti and Masai Mara. Spotted here in the Siana Conservancy near the Masai mara. Find out more about this conservancy at http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/729...
The males (first shot) have strongly ridged horns curving backwards, while the females have short smooth horns or none. The white patch on their rump does not extend further up than the tail, which helps to distinguish them from Grant's gazelles, some of which also have a black stripe on the side (to make things more confusing, these two gazelle species often graze together). The second shot shows a fawn, while the 3rd and 4th shots show a female with fawn. Thomson's gazelles are a favorite prey of cheetahs. A common joke in the region is that they have the “double arches” of a well-know fast food outlet tattoed on their rump…
Spotted on Aug 28, 2011
Submitted on Oct 15, 2011
21 Comments
Hi Daniels,
I have created a Mission for East Africa and cordially invite you to add you serengeti & Masai Mara photos to this new mission.
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/4028...
Cecilia, I would love to. Unfortunately however, this spotting in not in the range of your mission (300 miles radius). Please read carefully when you create missions: all user-created missions are local only at this stage. So you should rephrase the description of your mission to emphasize the area around which it is located. Otherwise the mission will be retired. Also, for your information Noah rangers do not systematically delete pictures of dead animals. There are circumstances under which these are appropriate and informative.
Thanks Achmmad!
What a beauty Daniele! Thanks for sharing this ...
Thank you Sachin and Cecilia.J!
Fabulous Spotting,
Thank you again bong.ambutong!
Excellent capture on this beautiful animal, excellent shot Daniele.
Welcome.
Thank you Michelle, Emma and Satyen! They are very graceful animals.
Wow, lovely spotting.
lovely!!
Great pics, and what a pretty face they have!
Thanks for your comment Ashish!
So cute...!!
Thank you Atul and Liam!
Beautiful!
beautiful
Thank you Carolina and Alice! The horns as especially beautiful in the male. I am glad you like the story Alice! The fast-food bit was told to me by a Maasai man who I'm sure has never seen a real McDonald's in his life...
Love your story also.
The male is so beautiful!