GERENUK 273 



THE GERENUK OR WALLER'S GAZELLE 



(Lithocranius ivallert] 



Gerenuk t SOMALI ; Gudan Godu, DANAKIL ; Gftgfifto, GALLA ; 

 Ligu, NODOROBO 



(PLATE X, fig. 7) 



Although unknown to modern science till 1878, in which year it 

 was named and described, on the evidence of a flat skin from East 

 Africa, by Sir Victor Brooke in the Zoological Society's Proceedings, 

 the gerenuk was a familiar animal to the ancient Egyptians, as is 

 proved by a slab in basso-relievo with the figures of a male and female, 

 believed to date from about 5600 B.C. When first described the 

 species was included in the genus Gazella, from which, however, it was 

 separated and rightly so in 1886. With the elongation of the 

 neck and limbs carried to a much greater extent than in the dibatag, 

 the gerenuk shows a further departure from the true gazelles in the 

 general loss of the light and dark face-streaks, which are represented 

 only by a large white patch, including in front an inflated purplish 

 glandular area, round each eye. The horns, too, are widely different 

 from those of the dibatag, being very massive, heavily ridged through- 

 out the greater portion of their extent, widely separated at their bases, 

 and directed at first outwards and forwards, then inwards and back- 

 wards, and finally bending forwards in somewhat of a hook at the tip. 

 As in the dibatag, the females are hornless. The skull is likewise 

 very characteristic, being long, low, and very solid in structure, with 

 a large portion (in the bucks) behind the horns. The general colour 

 of the upper-parts is deep rufous fawn, with a band of brown, some 

 eight inches in width, along the middle line of the back. The height 

 at the shoulder ranges from about 36 to 41 inches, while the record 

 horn-length is i 7 inches. A full-grown buck will weigh about 115 Ib. 



The range of this species extends from the Kilimanjaro district of 

 German East Africa through the country in the neighbourhood of 

 Lake Rudolf into Somaliland. 



The Somali representative of the species has been separated from 

 the typical African race by Mr. Oscar Neumann in the Sitsungs-Berichte 

 Ges. Naturfor. Berlin for 1899, p. 19, and may be known as Lit/to- 

 cranius ivalleri sclateri. This northern race is of larger size than the 



T 



