It is commonly known that humans have danced for many thousand years already. Its long history is responsible for all the transformations and changes it has undergone throughout the years. Thanks to that, nowadays we have many different dance styles that portray the importance of cultures, generations, and diverse societies. Dancing has become an important tool for communication and storytelling, which can be found nowhere else in this form. Through dancing, people are able to express emotions, thoughts, and things that are important to them. With different types of music, the experience can be intensified even more and can express the message in a way that words and speech could never do.
On first glance, it may look like only humans have this special ability, but dancing, in fact, can be found in the animal world as well. This can have different reasons; for example, animals may dance because they want to attract a mate or they use it for sustenance purposes. The aspect that combines all these reasons is that their dance is a form of communication. Also, the Thomson’s gazelle is one of these dancing animals.

The Thomson’s gazelle’s scientific name is Eudorcas thomsonii. It lives in the east of Africa and is a herd animal.
They owe their name to the explorer Joseph Thomson (1858–1895) from Scotland, who was included in many expeditions in Africa that had the Royal Geographic Society as a sponsor.
The antelope is medium-sized and can reach an age of 10 to 12 years when it lives in the wild. They live exclusively in herds with at least 10 animals and a maximum of a few hundred animals. Especially in the heavy rain seasons, they are bringing together a large number of animals.
The typical habitat of Thomson’s Gazelle is the wide, open plain, which is covered with several grasses. A clear disadvantage of these plains is that they are clearly visible to potential predators, which makes them look like easy prey. However, even though they are easily visible, when it comes to an attack, they might be able to run away from the predator since they can reach speeds of up to 64 km/h.
Furthermore, the Thomson’s Gazelle’s fur is light brown and has some white and black stripes on its sides and on the head. Even though it can only reach a height between about 50 cm and 110 cm, it can defend itself with its singular ringed horns.

Moreover, these animals do something that is called stotting. When they stot, it actually looks a little like they are dancing. It includes repeatedly jumping into the air with the back in an arched position. The legs are not in movement and are stretched through. They are not stotting randomly but only when they are close to a predator that approaches them, for example, a cheetah. But why are they not escaping but are wasting important time instead of running away?

An older theory is that they behave like this in order to express the danger to the rest of their herd, so they are warned. This explanation may still be true, but another theory is that they stot because they want to show the predator how fast and energetic they are. With that, they show, for example, the lion how fast they are and that they can afford to do this little dance because they are so fast that they can still run away from them. The goal of this is that the lion thinks that it is not worth it to try to catch the gazelle because of its high fitness level.

Sources:
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/gazelle-body-language.htm
https://www.bbcearth.com/news/natures-best-and-worst-dancers
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/thomsons-gazelle
https://naturetravelafrica.com/thomsons-gazelle/
https://curiousdesire.com/importance-of-dance-in-society/