Species profile
About the grant’s gazelle
Grant's gazelle is the taller, paler gazelle of the same plains, distinguished at a glance by the white rump patch that extends above the tail and by the absence of a strong black flank band in most Tanzanian animals. The males carry long, elegantly curved horns.
Its real advantage is water. Grant's gazelle can meet its needs from its food and can remain on dry plains long after wildebeest, zebra and Thomson's gazelle have moved on — which is why a scatter of pale gazelle is often the only large game left on the eastern Serengeti in the dry season.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Diurnal. Feeds standing rather than dropping to the knees, and does not flick its tail continuously as a Thomson’s gazelle does.
Social life
Small female herds with a territorial male; bachelor groups form separately and males spar with locked horns.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
Water-independent physiology and long lyrate horns; the white rump patch extending above the tail separates it from Thomson’s gazelle at any distance.
