![Thomson's gazelles (Eudorcas [Gazella] thomsonii) on the Serengeti Plain, Tanzania.](https://cdn.britannica.com/57/153457-050-46A481C3/Thomson-gazelles-Serengeti-Plain-Tanzania.jpg)
gazelle
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What is a gazelle?
Gazelles are medium-sized antelopes inhabiting arid regions of Asia and Africa. They are known for their slender limbs, level backs, and long necks.
Adapted to waterless environments, gazelles obtain water from plants and conserve it through concentrated urine and dry fecal pellets. Their light-colored coats reflect sunlight, and they can tolerate high core temperatures, seeking shade and feeding during cooler times.
Gazelles are nomadic and gregarious, forming herds of females and young, as well as bachelor males. They use glands and urine to mark territories. Hunting, habitat degradation, and competition with livestock have decimated gazelle populations.
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Where do gazelles live?
Gazelles are medium-sized antelopes that live in the arid regions of Asia, from China to the Arabian Peninsula; in North Africa, from the Saharan deserts to the sub-Saharan Sahel; and in Northeast Africa, from the Horn of Africa to Tanzania. They have adapted to inhabit waterless steppe, subdesert, and even desert regions. Most are tan-colored with white underparts and rump patches, a dark side stripe, and contrasting facial markings.
Like most antelopes of arid regions, gazelles are nomadic, migratory, or both. All gazelles are gregarious; females and young band together, as do bachelor males.
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What do gazelles eat?
Gazelles are herbivores that have adapted to live in dry environments. They can get water from the plants they eat, so they don't have to drink water. Gazelles are selective feeders, using their narrow jaws and incisor rows to eat only the most nutritious parts of plants.
As ruminants, gazelles have a multi-chambered stomach that allows symbiotic bacteria to break down otherwise indigestible compounds. This system allows them to get more nutrients from the plant matter they consume.
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How do gazelles avoid predators?
Gazelles use several strategies to avoid predators. Like other antelopes living in open plains, gazelles have developed rapid locomotion reflexes, such as explosive bursts of speed, to escape danger.
Gazelles have adapted to their arid environments and can extract water from plants, allowing them to thrive in areas where predators may struggle. Their coats are light-colored and reflective, helping them stay cool and blend in with their surroundings. This concealing coloration helps them to blend in.
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What are some physical features of gazelles?
Gazelles are medium-sized antelopes known for their slender limbs, level backs, and long necks. Most gazelles have a tan coat with white underparts, a white rump patch, a dark side stripe, and contrasting facial markings.
They live in arid environments and have adapted to extract water from plants, allowing them to thrive without drinking. They have narrow jaws and incisor rows for selective feeding. Their urine is concentrated, and they extract moisture from their fecal pellets. Gazelles' coats are light-colored and reflective, and they can tolerate an increase in their core temperature by as much as 5 Ā°C (9 Ā°F).
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How do different species of gazelles differ from each other?
Gazelles are medium-sized antelopes inhabiting arid regions of Asia and Africa, known for their slender limbs, level backs, and long necks. They have adapted to waterless environments by extracting water from plants, concentrating their urine, and tolerating high core temperatures.
Taxonomic classification has evolved, with genetic studies suggesting gazelles originate from multiple ancestors. Some species were moved from the Gazella genus to Nanger and Eudorcas. Gazella now includes ten species: three exclusively African, five exclusively Asian, and one shared by both continents.
Different gazelle species vary in size, colour, and horn size. The dama gazelle is the largest, while Grantās gazelle has the largest horns. Some, like Thomsonās gazelle, use secretions to mark territories. Most are nomadic or migratory and live in groups.
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gazelle, any of several fleet, medium-sized antelopes with slender, evenly developed limbs, level backs, and long necks. Most gazelles are tan-coloured, with white underparts and rump patch, a dark side stripe, and contrasting facial markings. They inhabit the arid lands of Asia from China to the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa from the Saharan deserts to the sub-Saharan Sahel, and northeast Africa from the Horn of Africa to Tanzania. Most gazelles are placed in the genus Gazella, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla).
Gazelles have adapted to inhabit waterless steppe, subdesert, and even desert. They can extract water from the plants they browse without having to drink. They have narrow jaws and incisor rows for highly selective feeding on the most nutritious growth. Their urine is concentrated, and, before excretion, moisture is extracted from their fecal pellets. Their coats are light-coloured and reflective. They can tolerate an increase in their core temperature by as much as 5 Ā°C (9 Ā°F). Gazelles seek shade and avoid activity in the hottest weather by feeding at night and early morning when plants contain the most moisture. If all else fails, they can cool down by rapid nasal panting.
The genus Gazella was traditionally considered to contain 14 species. However, specialists in the taxonomy of the gazelle tribe (Antilopini), using genetic techniques for studying phylogenetic relationships, now believe that gazelles stem from not one but several different ancestors. Accordingly, six species, all African, have been removed from Gazella by some authorities and placed in two different genera. The three largest speciesāthe dama gazelle, Grantās gazelle, and Soemmeringās gazelleāare placed in the genus Nanger (formerly considered a subgenus), and three of the smaller speciesāThomsonās gazelle, the red-fronted gazelle, and the Mongalla gazelleāhave become the genus Eudorcas. The Gazella genus as traditionally defined includes eight species that occur only in Africa, five that occur only in Asia, and one species that occurs both in Africa and Asia. In the revised classification, Gazella contains ten speciesāthree exclusively African, five exclusively Asian, and one shared by both continents.
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Asian gazelles
The Arabian Peninsula is the centre of diversity of the revised genus Gazella, with six species: the mountain gazelle (G. gazella), the goitred, or sand, gazelle (G. subgutturosa), the Arabian gazelle (G. arabica; now extinct), the Saudi gazelle (G. saudiya; now extinct in the wild), the Queen of Shebaās gazelle (G. bilkis; now extinct), and the dorcas gazelle (G. dorcas). The dorcas gazelle also ranges into North Africa. The range of the goitred gazelle extends across the Asian deserts to China, though its population is greatly reduced in numbers. A sixth Asian gazelle, the Indian gazelle or chinkara (G. bennetti), survives in the deserts of India and Pakistan.
Tribe Antilopini includes several Asian species of the genus Procapra that are also called gazelles: the Tibetan gazelle (P. picticaudata), Przewalskiās gazelle (P. przewalskii), and the Mongolian gazelle (P. gutturosa). The last, with a population estimated at well over one million, may be the most numerous of all hoofed mammals.
African gazelles
Of the three exclusively African Gazella species, two range north of the Sahara (along with the dorcas gazelle). The Atlas gazelle, also called Cuvierās, or the edmi, gazelle (G. cuvieri), is found in the Atlas Mountains. The rhim, or slender-horned, gazelle (G. leptoceros) is the most desert-adapted African gazelle and lives in the Saharaās great sand deserts (ergs) from Algeria to Egypt. The third indigenous species, Spekeās gazelle (G. spekei), inhabits the coastal plain of Somalia.
The dorcas gazelle, though still the most abundant and widespread of the Saharan antelopes, has been eliminated from most of its North African range. However, sizable populations survive in the Sahel from Mauritania to the Nile and in the lowlands of countries bordering the Red Sea.
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Thomsonās gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is still common in East Africa and abundant in the Serengeti ecosystem of Tanzania. An isolated species, the Mongalla gazelle (E. albonotata), occurs in eastern South Sudan and southwestern Ethiopia. The red-fronted gazelle (E. rufifrons) is a Sahel version of Thomsonās gazelle but is distinguished by a more rufous colour and a reddish border between the narrow black flank stripe and white underparts.
The dama gazelle (Nanger dama) is the largest gazelle, weighing up to 75 kg (165 pounds) and standing up to 120 cm (47 inches) at the shoulder. Formerly common in the grasslands and subdesert of the Sahel from Mauritania to Sudan, it now exists only in endangered remnant populations. This gazelle is unusual both for its form and for geographic variations in its colour pattern, which range from predominately rufous with extensive white underparts, rump, legs, and head in the west (N. dama mhorr) to nearly white in the east (N. dama ruficollis).
Grantās gazelle (N. granti) has the largest horns (up to 80 cm [31 inches]) and is still widespread both in and outside protected areas through most of its range from South Sudan to central Tanzania. Soemmeringās gazelle (N. soemmeringii) inhabits the arid savanna country of northeast Africa, where it is the ecological equivalent of Grantās gazelle. Clarkās gazelle (Ammordorcas clarkei) of northeast Africa is also known as the dibatag.
Ecology and behaviour
Like most antelopes of arid regions, gazelles are nomadic, migratory, or both. All gazelles are gregarious; females and young band together, as do bachelor males. During migration, the sexes associate in mixed herds, but they are segregated by territorial males whenever breeding opportunities arise. Gazelles are unusually endowed with glands; these are located between the hooves, in the groin (inguinal glands), on the front of the forelegs, and ahead of the eyes (preorbital glands). In males of some species (Thomsonās, red-fronted, Spekeās, and goitred) the preorbitals produce a sticky black secretion that is daubed on twigs and grass stems to demarcate territories. However, the main way of posting territories, in all members of the gazelle tribe, is with urine and feces, which males deposit on dung middens in a linked, highly ritualized performance.
Because antelopes living in open plains can be run down by motorized vehicles, all gazelles (with few exceptions) have been decimated over most of their range by relentless hunting. Habitat degradation and competition with livestock have also harmed gazelle populations.