Gerenuk

The gerenuk is a long-necked antelope of the Somali region of East Africa, sometimes called the giraffe gazelle. It stands 80 to 105 centimetres tall at the shoulder and weighs between 18 and 52 kilograms. It has a slender neck and legs, a reddish-brown 'saddle' on its back and lighter fawn sides.

Only males have horns, which are lyre-shaped and 25 to 44 centimetres long. The name gerenuk comes from the Somali word for the animal. The English word was first written down in 1895. A gerenuk eats leaves of thorny bushes, and its habit of standing on its hind legs to reach branches makes it one of the most unusual-looking antelopes.

Why does it stand on two legs?

The gerenuk browses on leaves, and its long neck helps, but it also rears up on its hind legs to reach food that other antelopes cannot. It lives in dry thornbush country in the Horn of Africa, and our card notes that it can live with very little drinking water. A tall body and neck let it feed on leaves above the height where most grazers can reach.

How was it named?

Victor Brooke described the gerenuk in 1879 from three male specimens and named it Gazella walleri in honour of Gerald Waller's late brother. In 1886 Franz Friedrich Kohl placed it in its own genus, Litocranius. Two subspecies have been proposed, a northern one from northwestern Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti and a southern one from Tanzania and Kenya to central Somalia. Some authors treat them as separate species. Its closest relative in genetic studies is the springbok.

On the globe

The toy model of the gerenuk stands in the dry thornbush of the Horn of Africa. Look for the very long neck.