Gazelle


A gazelle is any of many antelope species in the genus Gazella. This article also deals with the six species included in two further genera, Eudorcas and Nanger, which were formerly considered subgenera of Gazella. A third former subgenus, Procapra, includes three living species of Asian gazelles.
Gazelles are known as swift animals. Some are able to run at bursts as high as or run at a sustained speed of. Gazelles are found mostly in the deserts, grasslands, and savannas of Africa; but they are also found in southwest and central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. They tend to live in herds, and eat less coarse, easily digestible plants and leaves.
Gazelles are relatively small antelopes, most standing high at the shoulder, and are generally fawn-colored.
The gazelle genera are Gazella, Eudorcas, and Nanger. The taxonomy of these genera is confused, and the classification of species and subspecies has been an unsettled issue. Currently, the genus Gazella is widely considered to contain about 10 species. Four further species are extinct: the red gazelle, the Arabian gazelle, the Queen of Sheba's gazelle, and the Saudi gazelle. Most surviving gazelle species are considered threatened to varying degrees. Closely related to the true gazelles are the Tibetan and Mongolian gazelles, the blackbuck of Asia, and the African springbok.
One widely familiar gazelle is the African species Thomson's gazelle, which is around in height at the shoulder and is coloured brown and white with a distinguishing black stripe. The males have long, often curved, horns. Like many other prey species, Tommies and springboks exhibit a distinctive behaviour of stotting when they are threatened by predators, such as cheetahs, lions, African wild dogs, crocodiles, hyenas, and leopards.

Etymology and name

Gazelle is derived from غزال ġazāl, Maghrebi pronunciation ġazēl. To Europe it first came to Old Spanish and Old French, and then around 1600 the word entered the English language. The Arab people traditionally hunted the gazelle. Appreciated for its grace, it is a symbol most commonly associated in Arabic literature with female beauty. In many countries in Northwestern Sub-Saharan Africa, the gazelle is commonly referred to as "dangelo", meaning "swift deer".

Symbolism or totemism in African families

The gazelle, like the antelope to which it is a family of, is the totem of many African families such as the Joof family of the Senegambia region, the Bagananoa of Botswana in Southern Africa - said to be descended of the BaHurutshe, and the Eraraka clan of Uganda. As common in many African societies, it is forbidden for the Joof or Eraraka to kill or touch the family totem.

Poetry

One of the traditional themes of Arabic love poetry involves comparing the gazelle with the beloved, and linguists theorize ghazal, the word for love poetry in Arabic, is related to the word for gazelle. It is related that the Caliph Abd al-Malik freed a gazelle that he had captured because of her resemblance to his beloved:

O likeness of Layla, never fear!
For I am your friend, today, O wild gazelle!
Then I say, after freeing her from her fetters:
You are free for the sake of Layla, for ever!

The theme is found in the ancient Hebrew Song of Songs.

Come away, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or like a young stag
on the spice-laden mountains.

Species

The gazelles are divided into three genera and numerous species.
GenusCommon and binomial namesImageRange
GazellaArabian gazelle
G. arabica		Arabian Peninsula
GazellaCuvier's gazelle
G. cuvieri		Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia
GazellaDorcas gazelle
G. dorcas		North and saharan Africa, Sinai and Israel
GazellaGoitered gazelle
G. subgutturosa		Northern Azerbaijan, eastern Georgia, part of Iran, parts of Iraq and southwestern Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Gobi Desert
GazellaArabian sand gazelle
G. marica		Syrian Desert, southeastern Turkey, and Arabian Desert
GazellaChinkara or
Indian gazelle
G. bennettii		Iran, Pakistan and India
GazellaMountain gazelle
G. gazella		Israel, the Golan Heights, Dubai and Turkey
GazellaRhim gazelle
G. leptoceros		Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya and Sudan
GazellaSpeke's gazelle
G. spekei		Horn of Africa
GazellaNeumann's gazelle
G. erlangeri		Arabian Peninsula
Gazella†Saudi gazelle
G. saudiya		Arabian Peninsula
EudorcasMongalla gazelle
E. albonotata		Floodplain and savanna of South Sudan
EudorcasRed-fronted gazelle
E. rufifrons		The Sahel region of central Africa
EudorcasRed gazelle
E. rufina		Mountain areas of North Africa
EudorcasThomson's gazelle
E. thomsonii		East Africa
NangerDama gazelle
N. dama		Sahara desert and the Sahel
NangerGrant's gazelle
N. granti		Northern Tanzania to South Sudan and Ethiopia, and from the Kenyan coast to Lake Victoria
NangerSoemmerring's gazelle
N. soemmerringii		Horn of Africa

† = extinct

Prehistoric extinctions

Fossils of genus Gazella are found in Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits of Eurasia and Africa. The tiny Gazella borbonica is one of the earliest European gazelles, characterized by its small size and short legs. Gazelles disappeared from Europe at the start of the Ice Age, but they survived in Africa and Middle East.