The Arabian gazelle ''(Gazella arabica)'' is a species of

gazelle A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . This article also deals with the seven species included in two further genera, '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third ...

from the Arabian Peninsula.

Taxonomy

Until recently, it was only known from a single

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

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 The mountain gazelle (''Gazella gazella''), also called the Palestine mountain gazelle, is a species of gazelle widely but unevenly distributed. Description Mountain gazelle are one of the few mammals in which both sexes have horns. Males ha ...

(''Gazella gazella''), 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''.Bärmann, E. V., Wronski, T., Lerp, H., Azanza, B., Börner, S., Erpenbeck, D., Rössner, G. E. and Wörheide, G. (2013), A morphometric and genetic framework for the genus Gazella de Blainville, 1816 (Ruminantia: Bovidae) with special focus on Arabian and Levantine mountain gazelles. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 169: 673–696. doi: 10.1111/zoj.12066

Conservation

The Arabian gazelle is classified as a vulnerable species. There are many environmental factors affecting the population density of Arabian gazelles, such as human hunting, predation, competition, and climate change. The decline in population is due to human disturbances such as construction and illegal hunting. Other factors include temperature change, and predation (mainly by wolves); 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 (Shalmon, B., Sun, P. & Wronski, T., 2020).

References

*Shalmon, B., Sun, P. & Wronski, T. Factors driving Arabian gazelles (Gazella arabica) in Israel to extinction: time series analysis of population size and juvenile survival in an unexploited population. Biodivers Conserv 29, 315–332 (2020). doi: 10.1007/s10531-019-01884-8

External links

The Extinction Website - Species Info - Arabian Gazelle
{{DEFAULTSORT:gazelle, Arabian Arabian gazelle Antelopes of Asia Mammals of the Arabian Peninsula Arabian gazelle

Taxonomy

Conservation

See also

References

External links