THE GERENUK OR WALLER’S GAZELLE 
leaves of certain plants. On several occasions I saw gerenuks feeding like 
goats, standing straight up on their hind legs, with their forefeet resting 
on the lower branches of trees, the leaves of which their long necks enabled 
them to reach at a great height from the ground. It was a common 
occurrence along the Gwas N’yiro River to see gerenuks feeding in 
company with the local race of Grant’s gazelle, and on such occasions they 
were always far more alert, and more ready to take alarm than the latter 
animals. When alarmed in bush country, and if they think themselves 
unseen, they lower their heads, and, holding their long necks in a line 
with their bodies, go off at a trot; but more usually they break at once 
into a light, springy canter. From my own experience, it would seem 
that whether the gerenuk is a difficult or an easy animal to shoot will 
depend entirely upon the locality in which it is met with. If that locality 
has been much hunted, the gerenuk will certainly be the wildest and 
wariest species of antelope in the district; but should it be encountered in 
a country in which but little shooting has been done, then it will be found 
to be fairly tame and easy to approach. Though standing so high on the 
legs, the body of a gerenuk is really very small, and when one of these 
animals is standing full face, with his long legs, narrow chest and 
giraffe -like neck all in a straight line, it offers about as easy a shot as a 
telegraph pole. Though extraordinarily tenacious of life, the gerenuk is 
a small-boned, thin-skinned creature, and any of the modern small- 
bore, high-velocity rifles is more than sufficiently powerful to use in its 
pursuit. 
z 
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