Hab. Coastland of Red Sea from Suakin south to Tajurah (subspecies typica); Northern Somaliland (subspecies berberana).
This fine Gazelle was one of the many discoveries made in North-east Africa by the great traveller and naturalist Edouard Rüppell, and was first described and figured by Cretzschmar in the ‘Atlas’ which illustrated the zoological portion of Rüppell’s ‘Reise.’ The species was dedicated to Ritter Samuel Thomas von Soemmerring, on the occasion of that savant attaining the fiftieth year of his Doctorate—an event which was celebrated by the Senckenbergian Naturalists’ Society of Frankfort-on-the-Main on the 7th of April, 1828. The original specimens were procured by Rüppell on the eastern slope of the Abyssinian coast-range, and were deposited along with all his other collections in the Senckenbergian Museum. In a résumé of his knowledge of the East-African Antelopes contained in a subsequent work on the Vertebrates of Abyssinia, Rüppell tells us that he only met with this species in the bush-clad valleys of the Abyssinian coast, but that it was said to occur also on the large island of Dahalak off Massowah. It was generally observed in small families, which, however, sometimes congregated into larger herds.
Fig. 81.
Skull and horns of Gazella soemmerringi typica (male).
(From a specimen in the British Museum.)
Heuglin, another good authority on the animals of North-east Africa, informs us that this Antelope extends along the coast of the Red Sea from 20° N. latitude southwards to the Danakil country, and that it is also found in valleys of the Baraka and Atbara in the interior, and extends up to the neighbourhood of Berber, but is not so plentiful here as in the coast-districts.
Dr. W. T. Blanford, who accompanied the British Abyssinian Expedition of 1867–68 as naturalist, found this Antelope abundant on the coast of the Red Sea near Annesley Bay and Massowah, but states that it never ascends the hills. It was met with principally in the low bush and acacia-scrub in herds varying in size from a few individuals up to one hundred or more. A very large number, he adds, were shot by the sportsmen of the Expedition, who found the flesh excellent eating.
Fig. 82a. Fig. 82b.