African Safari Kenya Thomson's Gazelle

Thomson's Gazelle are commonly referred to as Tommys.

These pictures of Thomson's Gazelle were all taken of one small herd in Masai Mara, in January 2012. Gazelle are gregarious and herds of over a thousand are not uncommon at certain times of the year. Our herd seldom contained more than a few dozen.

Both Thomson's and Grant's gazelle are are of similar colour, but the Thomson's has a distinctive black stripe along its body, separating the tan upper body from the white belly. Thomson's gazelle are also smaller than Grant's gazelle.

Both male and female Thomson's gazelle have horns but as can be seen in the pictures, the male has much the larger, annulated horns.

The female Thomson's gazelle has short, spiky horns which are almost always deformed to some extent.

The pair on the right were intent on increasing the number of babies in their particular herd and rather than show the somewhat graphic photographs of their efforts, I have included a shot of the "some time later" variety, when the fruits of their labour has got to its legs!

The last picture is of a very rare sub species of Thomson's Nile Crocozelle. Sometimes during the annual mass migration, many, many Tommys are taken by Nile crocodile, at river crossings.

Sometimes, accidents occur, and in the melee, cross breeding may happen. This last photograph shows the end result of a passinate night out together when a Nile crocodile and a Thomson's gazelle failed to take the propper precautions.