Zoo Photography: The Little Addra Gazelle That Thought It Could

There are several animals that seem to recognize me every time I come to the local zoo, which I do often, and either walk towards me or put on a show for me. Of course all of these could just be in my head, but seems like that's the way it happens. One of these animals is a little addra gazelle.

For those who frequent the winter in the zoo, you know this is the time animals get frisky...frisky as in "get it on." This little gazelle, however seems to be a little confused.

That's him trying to get frisky with a lesser kudu in the same exhibit. These gazelles are the largest gazelles in the world, but still don't measure up to the kudus. 

That's him following the kudu around. 

This is him trying to do the unthinkable...at least to me it's 'unthinkable'. The lesser kudu chased him off and he went to look at a female gazelle, where he was chased off by the dominant addra gazelle in the exhibit. 

The next time I went to the zoo, he stopped grazing when I came near the exhibit and moved towards the poor lesser kudu. This time she wasn't going to take it, though, so she engaged him in a fierce head-banging battle. 

The little gazelle stood his ground and actually forced the kudu to disengage and saunter away. A couple of times I felt bad for the little fellow, though, as I thought his neck would be snapped in two or more pieces.

Good news is nothing bad happened and after a while they went back to just grazing. I'm thinking the dominant addra gazelle should just let this poor fellow get a little pleasing from the females rather than him going out and risking breaking his neck.

Maybe he can pull it off, maybe he can't, but he clearly thinks he can. 

Tweet

Share