Predators of Thomson's gazelles include lions, spotted hyenas, wild dogs, cheetahs, leopards, and jackals. During the calving season, the young are easy prey for all of these predators, as well as yellow baboons and pythons. Thomson's gazelles travel in small herds, which helps to protect individuals from predation. They are alert and can run quickly.
Known Predators:
Thomson's gazelles are small gazelles, the typical weight range is 15 to 35 kg. Males are larger overall, ranging in weight from 20 to 35 kg, females are from 15 to 25 kg. They have white bellies and reddish-brown backs, divided by a bold, black stripe laterally. Their rumps are white and their tails are black. Thomson's gazelles have reddish-brown fur on their faces, with a broad white stripe that extends from the eye to the nose and is bordered below by a black stripe. Males and some females have horns that curve backwards and are curved forwards distally in males. Females have smaller horns, if any, both lengthwise and in circumference. The horns are arrayed with a series of marked annulations. Thomson's gazelles resemble Grant's gazelles (Nanger granti) somewhat, although Grant's gazelles are larger overall, have horns that curve outwards, and the white of their rump extends to above the tail. Thomson's gazelles have a head and body length of 80 to 120 cm, a tail length of 15 to 27 cm, and height at the shoulder of 55 to 82 cm. They have prominent pre-orbital glands.
Thomson's gazelles are exceptionally fast runners, able to run at speeds up to 70 km/hour. They can outrun cheetahs if they can evade them for long enough because cheetahs can maintain high speeds for shorter times.
Range mass: 15 to 35 kg.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: male larger; ornamentation
Thomson's gazelles typically have a lifespan of 10.5 years in the wild. Approximately half of calves will die within their first year.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 10.5 years.
Thomson's gazelles live in dry, short grasslands and shrubby savannas. They are an arid-adapted species and are able to stay in dry grasslands for longer than other plains ungulates in the same region, which migrate towards more moist habitats. They follow a similar sort of seasonal migratory pattern as other ungulates in their range, but they stay for longer on the wet season range and don't migrate as far north in the dry season.
Habitat Regions: tropical ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland
Other Habitat Features: agricultural
Thomson's gazelles were previously recognized as Gazella thomsonii and were also lumped with all red gazelles under Gazella rufifrons. Eudorcas rufina, previously also placed within Gazella rufifrons was known only from Algeria and is presumed extinct. Eudorcas rufifrons, also previously known as Gazella rufifrons, was more widespread, occurring throughout the savannas of central Africa, from Senegal and Mauritania in the west to the western side of the Nile in Sudan and portions of Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea east of the Nile. Populations throughout that range are now highly fragmented and have declined dramatically because of hunting, competition with livestock, and habitat degradation. Some authorities recognize Eudorcas albonotata as a separate species (Sudan populations), here it is recognized as conspecific with Eudorcas thomsonii.
Thomson’s gazelles are fairly silent animals that communicate more visually. When alarmed they will communicate to conspecifics by stotting, which is a stereotyped series of high jumps with the head held high and the legs stiff. Males communicate to other males and females by marking territories with their scent glands, including preorbital glands that they use to mark grasses and stems. Males also drop dung at spots in their territory to advertise ownership.
Communication Channels: visual ; chemical
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
According to the IUCN Red List, Thomson's gazelles are listed as near threatened. Although populations are stable in some areas and widespread, some populations have experienced severe declines since the 1970's. If E. thomsonii and E. mongalla (southern Sudan populations) are considered separate species, then E. thomsonii has a small and restricted distribution, which further threatens this species. In Kenya, the largest populations are found in the lands of the Masai Mara, the Masai Mara National Reserve, and the Laikipia and Kajiado rangelands. They occupy about half of their former range in Tanzania. In some areas population declines can be partially attributed to human impacts such as roads, habitat changes, and the impacts of tourism. Large parts of their range are already in protected areas, including the Serengeti National Park and Masai Mara National Reserve.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: near threatened
Thomson's gazelles may be killed by farmers who think that they compete with domestic livestock. However, their impact is likely to be negligible.
Thomson's gazelles may be hunted for skin and meat. They are also part of the charismatic African ungulate fauna that supports a huge ecotourism industry in eastern Africa.
Positive Impacts: food ; body parts are source of valuable material; ecotourism
Thomson's gazelles are eaten by large predators such as lions, hyenas, and jackals. They modify plant communities through their grazing.
Mutualist Species:
Thomson’s gazelles graze mainly on short grasses. They eat twigs, seeds, and leaves from trees as well, especially during the dry season. Their smaller body size and drought tolerance make it possible for them to persist on arid grasslands that cannot support larger ungulates. Preferred grasses include Themeda, Cynodon, and Harpachne species. Foliage and seeds taken are from Acacia, Balanites, Boscia, Sida, and Solanum species.
Plant Foods: leaves; wood, bark, or stems; seeds, grains, and nuts
Primary Diet: herbivore (Folivore )
Thomson's gazelles are found in eastern Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania, and southern Sudan.
Biogeographic Regions: ethiopian (Native )
Thomson's gazelle males defend small territories and attempt to mate with females in that area. Females prefer rich foraging grounds, so preferred territories are those in areas with good grazing. Males use markings from preorbital glands and dung to advertise their territories and actively defend them against other males. They sometimes attempt to "herd" females in order to keep them in their territory for longer.
Mating System: polygynous
There is little available information on breeding in Thomson's gazelles. Thomson's gazelles mate twice yearly. Gestation is for 6 months and the majority of births occur right after the rainy season, with a single calf being born at 2 to 3 kg.
Breeding interval: Thomson's gazelles can breed twice a year.
Breeding season: Most breeding is timed so that most births occur right after the rainy season, although births can occur throughout the year.
Range number of offspring: 1 (low) .
Average number of offspring: 1.
Average gestation period: 6 months.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; year-round breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; viviparous
Thomson's gazelle calves are precocial at birth, able to stand and walk soon after, although they spend their first days hidden and motionless in the grass. The mother will leave the young in high grass and frequently come back a few times during the day to nurse. After this hiding period, the young follow and accompany their mother with the herd.
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female)
Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is one of the best known species of gazelles. It is named after explorer Joseph Thomson and is sometimes referred to as a "tommie".[2] It is considered by some to be a subspecies of the red-fronted gazelle and was formerly considered a member of the genus Gazella within the subgenus Eudorcas, before Eudorcas was elevated to genus status.[3]
Thomson's gazelles can be found in numbers exceeding 200,000[1] in Africa and are recognized as the most common type of gazelle in East Africa. A small fast antelope, the Thomson's gazelle is claimed to have top speeds up to 80–90 km/h (50–55 mph). It is the fourth-fastest land animal, after the cheetah (its main predator), pronghorn, and springbok.[2]
The current scientific name of Thomson's gazelle is Eudorcas thomsonii. It is a member of the genus Eudorcas and is classified under the family Bovidae. Thomson's gazelle was first described by British zoologist Albert Günther in 1884.[4] The relationships between Thomson's gazelle and the congeneric Mongalla gazelle (E. albonotata) remain disputed; while some authors such as Alan W. Gentry of the (Natural History Museum, London) consider the Mongalla gazelle to be a subspecies of Thomson's gazelle,[4][5] others (such as Colin Groves) consider the Mongalla gazelle to be a full species.[6] Zoologist Jonathan Kingdon treated Heuglin's gazelle, sometimes considered a species of Eudorcas (E. tilonura) or a subspecies of the red-fronted gazelle (E. r. tilonura), as a subspecies of Thomson's gazelle.[7] Thomson's gazelle is named after the Scottish explorer Joseph Thomson; the first recorded use of the name dates to 1897.[8] Another common name for the gazelle is "tommy".[9]
Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) _Antilope_cervicapra_(white_background).png)
Red-fronted gazelle (Eudorcas rufifrons) _Gazella_rufifrons_(white_background).png)
Thomson's gazelle (E. thomsonii) _Gazella_thomsoni_white_background.png)
Soemmerring's gazelle (Nanger soemmerringii) _Gazella_soemmerringi_(white_background).png){kind=small}
Grant's gazelle (N. granti) _Gazella_granti_(white_background).png)
Dama gazelle (N. dama) _Gazella_mhorr_(white_background).png)
Gerenuk (Litocranius walleri) _Lithocranius_walleri_(white_background).png)
Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) _Antidorcas_euchore_(white_background).png)
Antilope, Eudorcas, Gazella, and Nanger form a clade within their tribe Antilopini. A 1999 phylogenetic analysis showed that Antilope is the closest sister taxon to Gazella,[10] although the earliest phylogeny, proposed in 1976, placed Antilope as sister to Nanger.[11] In a more recent revision of the phylogeny of the Antilopini on the basis of nuclear and mitochondrial data in 2013, Eva Verena Bärmann (of the University of Cambridge) and colleagues constructed a cladogram that clearly depicted the close relationship between Nanger and Eudorcas. Antilope and Gazella were found to have a similar relationship.[12][13]
Two subspecies are identified:[6][14]
Thomson's gazelle is a relatively small gazelle; it stands 60–70 cm (24–28 in) at the shoulder. Males weigh 20–35 kg (44–77 lb), while the slightly lighter females weigh 15–25 kg (33–55 lb). Facial characteristics of the gazelle include white rings around the eyes, black stripes running from a corner of the eye to the nose, rufous stripes running from the horns to the nose, a dark patch on the nose, and a light forehead.[15][16]
The coat is sandy brown to rufous; a black band runs across the flanks, from the upper foreleg to just above the upper hind leg. A buff band occurs above the black stripe. Short, black streaks mark the white rump. The black tail measures 15–27 cm (5.9–10.6 in). Males have well-developed preorbital glands near the eyes, which are used for scent-marking territories. Both sexes possess horns that curve slightly backward with the tips facing forward. The horns, highly ringed, measure 25–43 cm (9.8–16.9 in) in males and 7–15 cm (2.8–5.9 in) in females. However, females have more fragile horns; some are even hornless.[7][15] Grant's gazelle is very similar to Thomson's gazelle, but can be differentiated by its larger size and the white patch on the rump extending top over the tail.[16]
The two subspecies differ in their appearance. The eastern Thomson's gazelle is the larger of the two, with fainter facial markings. The Serengeti Thomson's gazelle has a whiter face with more conspicuous markings. The horns of females are shorter than those of males to a greater degree in the eastern Thomson's gazelle and the horns are more divergent in the eastern Thomson gazelle.[6]
Thomson's gazelle lives in East Africa's savannas and grassland habitats, particularly the Serengeti region of Kenya and Tanzania. It has narrow habitat preferences, preferring short grassland with dry, sturdy foundation.[17] It does, however, migrate into tall grassland and dense woodland.[17] Gazelles are mixed feeders.[17] In the wet seasons, they eat mainly fresh grasses,[18] but during the dry seasons, they eat more browse,[18] particularly foliage from woody plants bushes and herbaceous forbs.[17]
Thomson's gazelles are dependent on short grass.[18] Their numbers can be highly concentrated at the beginning of the rains when the grass grows quickly.[18] In the Serengeti, they follow the larger herbivores, such as plains zebras and blue wildebeests as they mow down the taller grasses.[18] In the wild, Thomson's gazelles can live 10–15 years. Their major predators are cheetahs, which are able to attain higher speeds, but gazelles can outlast them in long chases and are able to make turns more quickly.[19] This small antelope can run extremely fast, up to 80 km/h (50 mph),[20] and zigzag, an adaptation which often saves it from predators. Sometimes, they are also taken by leopards, lions, African wild dogs, hyenas, Nile crocodiles and African rock pythons, and their fawns are sometimes the prey of eagles, jackals, and baboons. A noticeable behaviour of Thomson's gazelles is their bounding leap, known as stotting or pronking, used to startle predators and display strength.
During the wet season, a time when grass is abundant, adult male gazelles graze extensively. They spread out more and establish breeding territories.[21] Younger males usually spend their time in bachelor groups, and are prevented from entering the territories.[22] Females form migratory groups that enter the males' territories, mostly the ones with the highest-quality resources.[22] As the female groups pass through and forage, the territorial males may try to herd them, and are usually successful in preventing single females from leaving, but not whole groups.[17][22] Subadult males usually establish dominance through actual combat, while adults are more likely to do rituals.[17] If a bachelor male should be passing through a territorial male's region, the male will chase the offender out of his territory.[17]
When patrolling his territory, a male may use his horns to gore the grass, soil, or a bush.[23] Males also mark grass stems with their preorbital glands, which emit a dark secretion.[17][23] Territories of different males may share a boundary. When territorial males meet at the border of their territories, they engage in mock fights in which they rush towards each other as if they are about to clash, but without touching.[23] After this, they graze in a frontal position, then in parallel and then in reverse, and move away from each other while constantly grazing.[23] These rituals have no victor, but merely maintain the boundaries of the territories.[23] Territorial males usually do not enter another male's territory. If a male is chasing an escaping female, he will stop the chase if she runs into another territory, but the neighboring male will continue the chase.[23]
A male gazelle follows a female and sniffs her urine to find out if she is in estrus, a process known as the Flehmen response.[24] If so, he continues to court and mount her.[23] Females leave the herd to give birth to single fawns after a five- to six-month gestation period.[25] Birthing predominantly occurs after the rainy season, with newborn fawns weighing 2 to 3 kg (4.4 to 6.6 lb).[26] They give birth twice yearly with one or two fawns.[18] When giving birth, a female gazelle crouches as the newborn fawn drops to the ground, tearing the umbilical cord.[27] The mother then licks the fawn clean of amniotic fluid and tissues.[27] In addition, licking possibly also serves to stimulate the fawn's blood circulation, or to "label" it so its mother can recognize it by scent.[27]
In the first six hours of the fawn's life, it moves and rests with its mother, but eventually spends more time away from its mother or hides in the grass.[27] The mother stays in the vicinity of the fawn and returns to nurse it daily. Mother and fawn may spend an hour together before the fawn goes and lies back down to wait for the next nursing.[27] Mother gazelles may associate with other gazelle mothers, but the fawns do not gather into "kindergartens".[27] Mothers defend their young against jackals and baboons, but not against larger predators. Sometimes, a female can fend off a male baboon by headbutting him with her horns to defend her fawn.
Females exhibit pre-retrieval peaks in maternal vigilance. This behavior is conspicuous. Females all but cease other activities in favor of vigilance. They move slowly in the direction of the fawn’s hiding spot, stopping frequently to scan the environment. Several females in our observations engaged in “sham” feeding behavior, in which they lowered their heads to the ground as if to feed before quickly raising them back up to scan. In one instance, a female appeared to actively search for predators by climbing to the top of a slight hill to scan prior to approaching her fawn’s hiding spot.[28]
As the fawn approaches two months of age, it spends more time with its mother and less time hiding. Eventually, it stops hiding.[27] Around this time, the fawn starts eating solid food, but continues to nurse from its mother.[27] The pair also joins a herd. Young female gazelles may associate with their mothers as yearlings.[27] Young males may also follow their mothers, but as they reach adolescence, they are noticed by territorial males, so cannot follow their mothers into territories. The mother may follow and stay with him, but eventually stops following him when he is driven away; the male will then join a bachelor group.[27]
In an experiment studying the effects of dehydration and heat stress on food intake and dry matter digestibility, Thomson’s gazelle exhibited metabolic adaptations for desert environments. When exposed to heat stress alone, neither the food intake nor digestion of Thomson’s gazelle was affected.[29] Compared to some other East African ruminant species that did change their food intake and digestion in response to heat stress, Thomson’s gazelle appears relatively well-adapted to periodic heat stress.[29] However, Thomson’s gazelle is a water-dependent species, and when exposed to dehydration, its food intake decreased. Food intake was further depressed when gazelles were exposed to dehydration in addition to heat stress. Some of this reduction can be attributed to decreased metabolism, which can help the animals conserve water.[29] In another study comparing Thomson’s gazelles and Grant’s gazelles in foraging and behaviors to avoid predators, it was found that Thomson’s gazelle adjusted its diet during drought to eat more trees and shrubs of Acacia species rather than undigestible dried grasses.[30] Acacia species are high in tannins, anti-nutritional factors that can decrease metabolic performance.[30] However, gazelles appear to have the ability to detoxify and metabolize some tannins and moderate levels of condensed tannins may even be beneficial to ruminants by increasing amino acid absorption in the gut.[31][32]
The population estimate is around 550,000. The population had declined 60% from 1978 to 2005.[33] Threats to Thomson's gazelles are habitat modification, fire management, and road development.[1] Surveys have reported steep declines (60-70%) over periods of about 20 years dating from the late 1970s in several places, including the main strongholds for the species: Serengeti, Masai Mara, and Ngorongoro.[1]
References to the Thomson's gazelle were an occasional running gag in Monty Python's Flying Circus.
The 2016 Disney film Zootopia features an anthropomorphic Thomson's gazelle pop star, voiced by Shakira.
The Thomson's gazelle served as the inspiration for Alexander McQueen's 1997 Autumn/Winter collection, It's a Jungle Out There.[34]
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{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is one of the best known species of gazelles. It is named after explorer Joseph Thomson and is sometimes referred to as a "tommie". It is considered by some to be a subspecies of the red-fronted gazelle and was formerly considered a member of the genus Gazella within the subgenus Eudorcas, before Eudorcas was elevated to genus status.
Thomson's gazelles can be found in numbers exceeding 200,000 in Africa and are recognized as the most common type of gazelle in East Africa. A small fast antelope, the Thomson's gazelle is claimed to have top speeds up to 80–90 km/h (50–55 mph). It is the fourth-fastest land animal, after the cheetah (its main predator), pronghorn, and springbok.
