1 86 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



wigwagging, the sudden flare of white buttocks 

 is revealing. 



Depending chiefly on speed in escaping his 

 enemies, the antelope has also the added ad- 

 vantage of being able to detect an enemy while 

 he is still afar. The plains where he lives en- 

 able him to see objects miles away, and his 

 eyes being of telescopic nature ofttimes enable 

 him to determine whether a distant moving ob- 

 ject is friend or foe. 



It thus is important that an antelope be so 

 marked that another antelope will recognize 

 him at long range. Each flock of antelope 

 watches the distant surrounding flocks, and each 

 flock thus mutually aids the others by acting 

 as an outlying sentinel for it. If a flock sees 

 an object approaching that may be an enemy 

 it strikes attitudes which proclaim alarm, and, 

 definitely marked, their actions at once give 

 eye messages of alarm to all flocks in view and 

 close enough to make out what they are doing. 

 It would thus seem that the revealing colours 

 of the antelope have been of help in protecting 

 that is, perpetuating, the species. 



The antelope is nervous and is easily thrown 

 into a panic. Though it is often canny and 

 courageous, it lacks the coolness, the alertness, 

 and the resourcefulness that is to say, the 

 quick wit and adaptability of the mountain 



