I have been singularly unfortunate with this antelope, never having been in the country where it is found till I went to the Nogal Valley some three years ago. At that time the Jilal, or dry season, was at its height, and all game was scarce and shy, so I never got a Dibatag till June 1893, when on my return journey from Ogádén across the waterless plateau I made a détour of several days to the east on purpose to shoot one for my collection.
I searched for Dibatag at Tur, a jungle due south of Toyo grass plains, the distance being some eighty miles from Berbera, and was lucky in getting one good buck and picking up two pairs of horns, although I saw a good many, but all were wild and shy. This is their extreme western limit, and they never by any chance, I believe, come so far south as the Gólis Range. Farther east, towards Bur’o, they are more plentiful and less shy.
Clarke’s Gazelle (Ammodorcas clarkei).
Length of horns on curve, 9¾ inches.
Dibatag are very difficult to see, their purplish gray colour matching with the high durr grass in the glades where they are found. The glossy coat, shining, reflects the surrounding colours, making it sometimes almost invisible; and at the best of times its slender body is hard to make out. I have often mistaken female Waller’s gazelles for Dibatag, and once shot one of the former in mistake for the latter. The habits and gait are much the same, save that the Dibatag trots off with head held up, and the long tail held erect over the back nearly meeting the head, while Waller’s gazelle trots away with its head down and its short tail screwed round. Like Waller’s gazelle, the Dibatag goes singly or in pairs, or small families up to half a dozen.
As is the case with Waller’s gazelle, the Dibatag is enabled by its long neck and rather long upper lip to reach down branches of the mimósa bushes from a considerable height. The shape of head and way of feeding of both antelopes are giraffe-like, and I have seen both standing on the hind legs, fore-feet planted against the trunk of a tree, when feeding, an illustration of which is given. I have seen Dibatag feeding both on thorn-bushes and on the durr grass. Both Walleri and Clarke’s antelopes can live far from water. The country most suitable for Dibatag is jungle of the khansa or umbrella mimósa, alternating with glades of durr grass, which grows about six feet high. The females are hornless. The Dibatag is a very graceful antelope, standing higher than an Indian blackbuck, but weighing probably a good deal less.
A Dibatag Buck