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Strange hairy antelope spotted in the Masai Mara
The strangest thing happened in the famous Masai Mara a few weeks ago – a hairy goat-like creature was caught on camera by veteran Italian photographer Paolo Torchio, while roaming the plains.Having lived and worked in Kenya for two decades Paolo is hugely familiar with the game resident in the reserve, so he was astonished to see a terrier’s face poking out of the tall grass. “I was wondering what this dog was doing out in the wild” Torchio said. When the ‘Terrier’ emerged from the grass it was clearly not a dog. The animal had all the markings of a Thomson’s gazelle but was covered with a strange, thick coat of hair, in stark contrast to the sleek Thomson’s gazelles in its company.When Torchio found the strange Terrier-like antelope, it seemed at ease with the other ‘ordinary’ antelopes. “Its funny look was not affecting the relations with the other gazelles”, Torchio said.Torchio crept alongside the shaggy creature for 15 minutes, snapping pictures, but eventually the animal took off. The Italian photographer spent the next five days trying to find the gazelle, but to no avail. Experts are not quite sure what to make of the fluffy little gazelle, especially since Torchio’s photographs are the only known example of such a beast existing.