The
Dorcas Gazelle also known as the
Ariel Gazelle, is a small and common
gazelleA gazelle is any of many antelope species in the genus Gazella, or formerly considered to belong to it. Six species are included in two genera, Eudorcas and Nanger, which were formerly considered subgenera...
. The Dorcas Gazelle stands approximately 55-65 cm (1.8-2.1 ft). Dorcas gazelle have a head and body length of 90-110 cm (3-3.6 ft) and a weight of 15-20 kg (33-44 lb). The numerous subspecies of the Dorcas Gazelle survive on vegetation in
grasslandGrasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
,
steppeIn physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
, wadis, mountain
desertA desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
and in semi-desert climates of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and Arabia. About 35,000 - 40,000 exist in the wild. The extinct
Saudi GazelleThe Saudi Gazelle, Gazella saudiya, is an extinct species of gazelle that was once found in the Arabian peninsula. It is extinct due to hunting by humans of its native lands....
from the
Arabian PeninsulaThe Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
has been previously considered as a subspecies of the Dorcas Gazelle.
Subspecies
- Gazella dorcas beccari Eritrean Dorcas Gazelle
- Gazella dorcas dorcas Egyptian Dorcas Gazelle
- Gazella dorcas isabella Isabella's Gazelle
- Gazella dorcas massaesyla Moroccan Dorcas gazelle
- Gazella dorcas osiris Saharan Dorcas gazelle
- Gazella dorcas pelzelni Pelzeln's gazelle
Description
The Dorcas gazelle is similar in appearance to, yet smaller than, the closely related
Mountain GazelleThe mountain gazelle is a species of gazelle that is widely but unevenly distributed across the Arabian Peninsula. It inhabits mountains, foothills and coastal plains. Its range coincides closely with that of the acacia trees that grow in these areas. It is mainly a grazing species, though this...
(
Gazella gazella). Dorcas have longer ears and more strongly curved horns, which bow outwards then turn inwards and forwards at the tips. Individuals belonging to the
SaharaThe Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
n subspecies (
G. d. osiris) have a very pale fawn colored coat. The white underside is bordered with a brown stripe, above which there is a sandy stripe. The forehead and face are darker than the body. Subspecies from north of the Sahara tend to be more ochre in color, and have dark flanks and facial stripes. Populations in
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and around the
Red SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
are darker and more reddish.
In the last century the populations of Dorcas gazelle were partially destroyed in all the countries that was its subsistence.
Currently, there are large populations of Dorcas gazelles in the
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
and the
AravaArava can refer to:*Arava, Estonia, a village in Anija Commune, Harju County, Estonia.*Arabah, a section of the Great Rift Valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba in Israel and Jordan....
. There are other large populations in Sudan, Iraq and the southern part of the eastern desert of Egypt.
In Israel there are only between 1000-1500 gazelles.
Behaviour
The Dorcas Gazelle is highly adapted to the desert. They can go their entire lives without drinking, as they can get all of the moisture they need from the plants in their diet, though they do drink when water is available. They are able to withstand high temperatures, but when it is very hot they are active mainly at dawn, dusk and during the night. In areas where they face human predation, they tend to be active only at night in order to minimise the risk of falling prey to hunters. These gazelles feed on leaves, flowers and pods of many species of
AcaciaAcacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
n trees, as well as the leaves, twigs and fruits of various bushes. They occasionally stand on their hind legs to graze on trees, and after rain they have been observed digging out bulbs from the ground. Dorcas Gazelles are able to run at speeds of up to 70 km per hour (43 mph), and when threatened they tail-twitch and make bouncing leaps with the head held high (stotting) to announce that they have seen a predator.
Breeding
When conditions are harsh, Dorcas Gazelles live in pairs, but when conditions are more favorable they join together in family herds with one adult male, several females and young. During the breeding season, adult males tend to be territorial, and mark their range with dung middens. In most parts of their range, mating takes place from September to November. Gestation takes six months; a single fawn is typical, although twins have been reported in
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. The newborn is well developed at birth, with fur and open eyes. Within the first hour, the fawn attempts to stand, and it will suckle on this first day of life. In the first two weeks, the young gazelle lies curled up in a scrape on the ground or beneath bushes while the mother grazes close by. The young then starts to follow its mother around and begins to take solid food. After around three months, the fawn stops suckling and is fully weaned. Some Dorcas are also known for their dangerous behaviors when surrounded. There have been many reports of deaths involving the Dorcas Gazelles.
Threats
The population of this gazelle has declined throughout its range. The natural predators of Dorcas Gazelles include the
humanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
,
cheetahThe cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
,
leopardThe leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
, and
lionThe lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
, but due to human hunters, few large cats remain to eat Dorcas gazelles. The
ServalThe serval , Leptailurus serval or Caracal serval, known in Afrikaans as Tierboskat, "tiger-forest-cat", is a medium-sized African wild cat. DNA studies have shown that the serval is closely related to the African golden cat and the caracal...
and
CaracalThe caracal is a fiercely territorial medium-sized cat ranging over Western Asia, South Asia and Africa.The word caracal comes from the Turkish word "karakulak", meaning "black ear". In North India and Pakistan, the caracal is locally known as syahgosh or shyahgosh, which is a Persian term...
are also prey on this species. The main modern threat to this gazelle is ever-expanding human civilization, which shrinks the gazelle's habitat by converting it to farmland for growing crops, and by introducing new flocks of domestic sheep and goats which compete with the gazelle for vegetation.
External links
The
Dorcas Gazelle (
Gazella dorcas), also known as the
Ariel Gazelle, is a small and common
gazelleA gazelle is any of many antelope species in the genus Gazella, or formerly considered to belong to it. Six species are included in two genera, Eudorcas and Nanger, which were formerly considered subgenera...
. The Dorcas Gazelle stands approximately 55-65 cm (1.8-2.1 ft). Dorcas gazelle have a head and body length of 90-110 cm (3-3.6 ft) and a weight of 15-20 kg (33-44 lb). The numerous subspecies of the Dorcas Gazelle survive on vegetation in
grasslandGrasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
,
steppeIn physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
, wadis, mountain
desertA desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
and in semi-desert climates of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and Arabia. About 35,000 - 40,000 exist in the wild. The extinct
Saudi GazelleThe Saudi Gazelle, Gazella saudiya, is an extinct species of gazelle that was once found in the Arabian peninsula. It is extinct due to hunting by humans of its native lands....
from the
Arabian PeninsulaThe Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
has been previously considered as a subspecies of the Dorcas Gazelle.
Subspecies
- Gazella dorcas beccari Eritrean Dorcas Gazelle
- Gazella dorcas dorcas Egyptian Dorcas Gazelle
- Gazella dorcas isabella Isabella's Gazelle
- Gazella dorcas massaesyla Moroccan Dorcas gazelle
- Gazella dorcas osiris Saharan Dorcas gazelle
- Gazella dorcas pelzelni Pelzeln's gazelle
Description
The Dorcas gazelle is similar in appearance to, yet smaller than, the closely related
Mountain GazelleThe mountain gazelle is a species of gazelle that is widely but unevenly distributed across the Arabian Peninsula. It inhabits mountains, foothills and coastal plains. Its range coincides closely with that of the acacia trees that grow in these areas. It is mainly a grazing species, though this...
(
Gazella gazella). Dorcas have longer ears and more strongly curved horns, which bow outwards then turn inwards and forwards at the tips. Individuals belonging to the
SaharaThe Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
n subspecies (
G. d. osiris) have a very pale fawn colored coat. The white underside is bordered with a brown stripe, above which there is a sandy stripe. The forehead and face are darker than the body. Subspecies from north of the Sahara tend to be more ochre in color, and have dark flanks and facial stripes. Populations in
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and around the
Red SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
are darker and more reddish.
In the last century the populations of Dorcas gazelle were partially destroyed in all the countries that was its subsistence.
Currently, there are large populations of Dorcas gazelles in the
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
and the
AravaArava can refer to:*Arava, Estonia, a village in Anija Commune, Harju County, Estonia.*Arabah, a section of the Great Rift Valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba in Israel and Jordan....
. There are other large populations in Sudan, Iraq and the southern part of the eastern desert of Egypt.
In Israel there are only between 1000-1500 gazelles.
Behaviour
The Dorcas Gazelle is highly adapted to the desert. They can go their entire lives without drinking, as they can get all of the moisture they need from the plants in their diet, though they do drink when water is available. They are able to withstand high temperatures, but when it is very hot they are active mainly at dawn, dusk and during the night. In areas where they face human predation, they tend to be active only at night in order to minimise the risk of falling prey to hunters. These gazelles feed on leaves, flowers and pods of many species of
AcaciaAcacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
n trees, as well as the leaves, twigs and fruits of various bushes. They occasionally stand on their hind legs to graze on trees, and after rain they have been observed digging out bulbs from the ground. Dorcas Gazelles are able to run at speeds of up to 70 km per hour (43 mph), and when threatened they tail-twitch and make bouncing leaps with the head held high (stotting) to announce that they have seen a predator.
Breeding
When conditions are harsh, Dorcas Gazelles live in pairs, but when conditions are more favorable they join together in family herds with one adult male, several females and young. During the breeding season, adult males tend to be territorial, and mark their range with dung middens. In most parts of their range, mating takes place from September to November. Gestation takes six months; a single fawn is typical, although twins have been reported in
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. The newborn is well developed at birth, with fur and open eyes. Within the first hour, the fawn attempts to stand, and it will suckle on this first day of life. In the first two weeks, the young gazelle lies curled up in a scrape on the ground or beneath bushes while the mother grazes close by. The young then starts to follow its mother around and begins to take solid food. After around three months, the fawn stops suckling and is fully weaned. Some Dorcas are also known for their dangerous behaviors when surrounded. There have been many reports of deaths involving the Dorcas Gazelles.
Threats
The population of this gazelle has declined throughout its range. The natural predators of Dorcas Gazelles include the
humanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
,
cheetahThe cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
,
leopardThe leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
, and
lionThe lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
, but due to human hunters, few large cats remain to eat Dorcas gazelles. The
ServalThe serval , Leptailurus serval or Caracal serval, known in Afrikaans as Tierboskat, "tiger-forest-cat", is a medium-sized African wild cat. DNA studies have shown that the serval is closely related to the African golden cat and the caracal...
and
CaracalThe caracal is a fiercely territorial medium-sized cat ranging over Western Asia, South Asia and Africa.The word caracal comes from the Turkish word "karakulak", meaning "black ear". In North India and Pakistan, the caracal is locally known as syahgosh or shyahgosh, which is a Persian term...
are also prey on this species. The main modern threat to this gazelle is ever-expanding human civilization, which shrinks the gazelle's habitat by converting it to farmland for growing crops, and by introducing new flocks of domestic sheep and goats which compete with the gazelle for vegetation.
External links
The
Dorcas Gazelle (
Gazella dorcas), also known as the
Ariel Gazelle, is a small and common
gazelleA gazelle is any of many antelope species in the genus Gazella, or formerly considered to belong to it. Six species are included in two genera, Eudorcas and Nanger, which were formerly considered subgenera...
. The Dorcas Gazelle stands approximately 55-65 cm (1.8-2.1 ft). Dorcas gazelle have a head and body length of 90-110 cm (3-3.6 ft) and a weight of 15-20 kg (33-44 lb). The numerous subspecies of the Dorcas Gazelle survive on vegetation in
grasslandGrasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
,
steppeIn physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
, wadis, mountain
desertA desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
and in semi-desert climates of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and Arabia. About 35,000 - 40,000 exist in the wild. The extinct
Saudi GazelleThe Saudi Gazelle, Gazella saudiya, is an extinct species of gazelle that was once found in the Arabian peninsula. It is extinct due to hunting by humans of its native lands....
from the
Arabian PeninsulaThe Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
has been previously considered as a subspecies of the Dorcas Gazelle.
Subspecies
- Gazella dorcas beccari Eritrean Dorcas Gazelle
- Gazella dorcas dorcas Egyptian Dorcas Gazelle
- Gazella dorcas isabella Isabella's Gazelle
- Gazella dorcas massaesyla Moroccan Dorcas gazelle
- Gazella dorcas osiris Saharan Dorcas gazelle
- Gazella dorcas pelzelni Pelzeln's gazelle
Description
The Dorcas gazelle is similar in appearance to, yet smaller than, the closely related
Mountain GazelleThe mountain gazelle is a species of gazelle that is widely but unevenly distributed across the Arabian Peninsula. It inhabits mountains, foothills and coastal plains. Its range coincides closely with that of the acacia trees that grow in these areas. It is mainly a grazing species, though this...
(
Gazella gazella). Dorcas have longer ears and more strongly curved horns, which bow outwards then turn inwards and forwards at the tips. Individuals belonging to the
SaharaThe Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
n subspecies (
G. d. osiris) have a very pale fawn colored coat. The white underside is bordered with a brown stripe, above which there is a sandy stripe. The forehead and face are darker than the body. Subspecies from north of the Sahara tend to be more ochre in color, and have dark flanks and facial stripes. Populations in
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and around the
Red SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
are darker and more reddish.
In the last century the populations of Dorcas gazelle were partially destroyed in all the countries that was its subsistence.
Currently, there are large populations of Dorcas gazelles in the
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
and the
AravaArava can refer to:*Arava, Estonia, a village in Anija Commune, Harju County, Estonia.*Arabah, a section of the Great Rift Valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba in Israel and Jordan....
. There are other large populations in Sudan, Iraq and the southern part of the eastern desert of Egypt.
In Israel there are only between 1000-1500 gazelles.
Behaviour
The Dorcas Gazelle is highly adapted to the desert. They can go their entire lives without drinking, as they can get all of the moisture they need from the plants in their diet, though they do drink when water is available. They are able to withstand high temperatures, but when it is very hot they are active mainly at dawn, dusk and during the night. In areas where they face human predation, they tend to be active only at night in order to minimise the risk of falling prey to hunters. These gazelles feed on leaves, flowers and pods of many species of
AcaciaAcacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
n trees, as well as the leaves, twigs and fruits of various bushes. They occasionally stand on their hind legs to graze on trees, and after rain they have been observed digging out bulbs from the ground. Dorcas Gazelles are able to run at speeds of up to 70 km per hour (43 mph), and when threatened they tail-twitch and make bouncing leaps with the head held high (stotting) to announce that they have seen a predator.
Breeding
When conditions are harsh, Dorcas Gazelles live in pairs, but when conditions are more favorable they join together in family herds with one adult male, several females and young. During the breeding season, adult males tend to be territorial, and mark their range with dung middens. In most parts of their range, mating takes place from September to November. Gestation takes six months; a single fawn is typical, although twins have been reported in
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. The newborn is well developed at birth, with fur and open eyes. Within the first hour, the fawn attempts to stand, and it will suckle on this first day of life. In the first two weeks, the young gazelle lies curled up in a scrape on the ground or beneath bushes while the mother grazes close by. The young then starts to follow its mother around and begins to take solid food. After around three months, the fawn stops suckling and is fully weaned. Some Dorcas are also known for their dangerous behaviors when surrounded. There have been many reports of deaths involving the Dorcas Gazelles.
Threats
The population of this gazelle has declined throughout its range. The natural predators of Dorcas Gazelles include the
humanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
,
cheetahThe cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
,
leopardThe leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
, and
lionThe lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
, but due to human hunters, few large cats remain to eat Dorcas gazelles. The
ServalThe serval , Leptailurus serval or Caracal serval, known in Afrikaans as Tierboskat, "tiger-forest-cat", is a medium-sized African wild cat. DNA studies have shown that the serval is closely related to the African golden cat and the caracal...
and
CaracalThe caracal is a fiercely territorial medium-sized cat ranging over Western Asia, South Asia and Africa.The word caracal comes from the Turkish word "karakulak", meaning "black ear". In North India and Pakistan, the caracal is locally known as syahgosh or shyahgosh, which is a Persian term...
are also prey on this species. The main modern threat to this gazelle is ever-expanding human civilization, which shrinks the gazelle's habitat by converting it to farmland for growing crops, and by introducing new flocks of domestic sheep and goats which compete with the gazelle for vegetation.
External links