Photo: Paolo Torchio.
Photographer Paolo Torchio recently came upon a weird-looking antelope on Africa’s Maasai Mara, sometimes written as “Masai Mara.”
The Masai Mara National Reserve is properly spelled Maasai Mara. It is known by the locals as “the Mara,” a large game reserve in southwestern Kenya. The reserve is essencely the northern continuation of the Serengeti National Park game reserve in Tanzania. Named after the Maasai people, the traditional inhabitants of the area, it reflects their description of the area when looked at from a viewpoint – “Mara,” which is Maa (Maasai language) for spotted: an apt description for the circles of trees, scrub, savannah and cloud shadows that mark the area. It is famous for its exceptional population of large felids, game, and the annual migration of zebra, Thomson’s gazelle and wildebeest from the Serengeti every year from July to October, a migration so immense it is called the “Great Migration.”
Photo: Paolo Torchio.
Paula of Baraza’s Wildlife Direct quotes Torchio in noting that capturing an image of something never seen before is every photographer’s dream.
In cryptozoology, being aware of unusual specimens is of assistance in realizing that all reports of cryptids might not be, necessarily, a new species. Nevertheless, it is important to keep track of such incidents, as much as possible. Some examples of these encountered animals may be merely mutated forms of known species, hybrids, or other seemingly strange occurrences among a large normal population.
In the case of this “Masai Mara Mystery,” this animal, with ruffled head, which almost forms a mane, also has longer than normal body fur.
Photo: Paolo Torchio.
From the animals it is with, this is clearly a Thompson’s gazelle (Gazella thomsoni) of some kind. Examples from Masai Mara are easily found on the web (e.g. here and here).
Photo: Paolo Torchio.
For more of Paolo Torchio’s wildlife photographs, click here.
I thank Paolo Torchio for his direct, firsthand permission to post his photographs of this unusual antelope.
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