Arabian gazelle


The Arabian gazelle is a species of gazelle known from the Arabian Peninsula. Until recently, it was only known from a single lectotype specimen mistakenly thought to have been collected on the Farasan Islands in the Red Sea in 1825. A 2013 genetic study of the lectotype specimen revealed that skull and skin do not stem from the same individual but belong to two distinct lineages of the mountain gazelle, necessitating restriction of the lectotype to the skin to conserve nomenclatural stability. A later study formalized the use of Gazella arabica for the Arabian lineage of the mountain gazelle, and synonymized Gazella erlangeri with G. arabica.
The Arabian Gazelle is classified as a vulnerable species. The decline in population is due to human disturbances such as construction and illegal hunting. Other factors include temperature change, and predation.There are many environmental factors affecting the population density of Arabian gazelles, such as human hunting, predation, competition, and climate change. The biggest factor that has shown a strong correlation is predation. As the researchers stated in their findings that, “Wolf encounter rate had a significant negative effect on G. arabica population size, while G. dorcas population size had a significant positive effect, suggesting that wolf predation shapes the population size of both gazelle species .