Today I’d like to mention a severely goofy animal.
I became acquainted with said animal and its goofiness a few days ago when I did this colored pencil drawing from a photo reference.
You thought meerkats looked pretty darn silly, right? Examine if you will the gerenuk.
According to its wikipedia entry, Litocranius walleri, or Waller’s Gazelle, is native to East Africa, and the name “gerenuk” is a Somali term meaning “deer made out of rubber bands.”
I was looking at and drawing gazelles, antelopes, and deer – once again trying to find essential shapes and perfect a sort of caricature of the things that make them look so sleek and fast. It turned out I didn’t have to; nature did the work for me. I mean: gerenuks are sort of pretty – so thin and streamlined that they look like pixies. Also, sort of ridiculous. Look at its stick-outy ears.
This one, by comparison, is Grant’s Gazelle, Nanger granti.
My search for reference photos also led to a quirky resource: ultimateungulate.com. Everything you could want to know about hoofed mammals is here.
