Five years ago, when I was staying in the quarters at Bulhár, the Aoul could be seen from the bungalow grazing out on the plain. The Bulhár Maritime Plain used to be full of them, but they have been so persecuted by sportsmen that they have now retired to some distance. The bush in the Bulhár Plain is delightful for sport when not overrun by the Somáli flocks and herds. In the Haga, or summer, Bulhár is nearly empty. The walking under-foot is very thorny, owing to a practice in vogue with Somális of scattering thorny brushwood about the ground across certain paths, to prevent the straying of the animals. Some of the thorns are four inches long, and soon find out a hole in the boot.
The Aoul weighs about the same as the Gerenúk, but has a shorter neck and a more clumsy-looking head, and is altogether a coarser animal. It is a grass-feeder, and lives in the open plains or in scattered bush, and never in thick jungle, and prefers tolerably flat ground. The white hind-quarters can be seen from a great distance, making a herd look like a flock of sheep in the haze of the plains. I have never seen them in the cedar forests on the top of Gólis, but in the hartebeest ground to the south they are common, and may often be seen in very large herds along with the hartebeests, and are very common all over the Haud and Ogádén and near the Webbe.
They are, I think, the most stupid and easy to shoot of all the Somáli antelopes, and their habits are identical with those of the Indian blackbuck, but they are not equal to it in beauty and grace of movement. Aoul often make long and high jumps when going away, presumably to look over the backs of the others; they look something like specimens of the Cape springbuck which I have seen in England. I have never observed them spring vertically to a great height, as the Indian blackbuck does. They are inquisitive like the hartebeests, and will follow a caravan in the open; and if fired at, they make off across the front, stretching themselves out at racing speed, and drawing up in a troop now and then to gaze.
If much meat is required, it is easy in scattered bush for a man on foot to run into a large herd and shoot several. The bucks will often be seen fighting or chasing each other at full speed. Solitary bucks are sometimes found, and I once saw about fifteen young fawns gathered together a mile away from the adult herd. The largest herd I have ever seen in the Bulhár Plain contained about two hundred individuals, but I have seen over a thousand together in the open plains of the Haud.
Aoul can live a long way from water. Near the coast they often come down close to the shore, possibly to lick the salt pebbles. A wounded buck does not hide, but will lie down in the most open spot he can find, and there will generally be a circle of jackals waiting round him. They can sometimes be easily shot at dusk, when they are apt to blunder close to a caravan. The horns vary in shape, and are often malformed or wanting in symmetry, being generally lyrate, the points turning inwards and forwards. The largest pair I have seen measured seventeen inches, following the curve; the average is about fourteen inches.
The Guban or Lowland Gazelle (Gazella pelzelni).
The Ogo or Plateau Gazelle (Gazella spekei).
Native name for either variety, Déro
The Plateau gazelle, which has the ridges of loose skin over the nose well developed, inhabits the elevated country, commencing about thirty-five miles inland. It is found south of Gólis, in Ogo and in the Haud, as well as in Ogo-Gudan, the country near Hargeisa where Guban rises gradually into Ogo.
I have shot large numbers of gazelles for food at various times, and have always noticed that the Plateau variety has a much thicker and longer coat than the other. This is possibly the result of natural selection, as the high plains of Ogo and the Haud, where it lives, are subject to sweeping cold winds, and the nights are very cold indeed. The altitude of these plains inhabited by the Plateau gazelle is from three thousand to over six thousand feet, but doubtless they go much lower towards Ogádén. The great step of Gólis, with its prolongations east and west, which rises some forty miles inland and separates Guban, the low coast country, from Ogo, the high interior country, forms the natural line of demarcation between these two gazelles.