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Gazelle Temporal range: Pliocene to recent
Rhim gazelle
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Bovidae
Subfamily:	Antilopinae
Tribe:	Antilopini
Genus:	Gazella Blainville, 1816
Species
Several, see text

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 100 km/h (60 mph) or run at a sustained speed of 50 km/h (30 mph).^[1] 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 60–110 cm (2–3.5 ft) 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.^[2] 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 (species of the genus Procapra), the blackbuck of Asia, and the African springbok.

One widely familiar gazelle is the African species Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsoni), which is around 60 to 80 cm (24 to 31 in) 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 (as they are familiarly called) exhibit a distinctive behaviour of stotting (running and jumping high before fleeing) when they are threatened by predators, such as cheetahs, lions, African wild dogs, crocodiles, hyenas, and leopards.

Etymology and name

Byzantine-era mosaic of gazelle in Caesarea, Israel

Gazelle is derived from Arabic: غزال‎ ġazāl,^[3]Maghrebi pronunciation ġazēl.^[4] To Europe it first came to Old Spanish and Old French,^[4] and then around 1600 the word entered the English language.^[5] The Arab people traditionally hunted the gazelle. Appreciated for its grace, it is a symbol most commonly associated in Arabic and Persian literature with female beauty.^[6] In many countries in Northwestern Sub-Saharan Africa, the gazelle is commonly referred to as “dangelo,” meaning “swift deer.” The origins of this word date back to somewhere in between 600 and 650 B.C.E., found in roots of the Indo-European language family.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[7] It is related that the Caliph Abd al-Malik (646–705) 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 deer!

Then I say, after freeing her from her fetters:

You are free for the sake of Layla, for ever!^[7]

The theme is found in the ancient Hebrew Song of Songs. (8:14)

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.^[8]

Genus	Common and binomial names	Image	Range
Gazella	Arabian gazelle G. arabica		Arabian Peninsula
	Cuvier's gazelle G. cuvieri		Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia
	Dorcas gazelle G. dorcas		North and saharan Africa, Sinai and Israel
	Goitered gazelle G. subgutturosa		Northern Azerbaijan, eastern Georgia, part of Iran, parts of Iraq and southwestern Pakistan, southeastern Turkey, Afghanistan and the Gobi Desert
	Arabian sand gazelle G. marica		Syrian Desert and Arabian Desert
	Chinkara or Indian gazelle G. bennettii		Iran, Pakistan and India
	Mountain gazelle G. gazella		Israel, the Golan Heights, and Turkey
	Rhim gazelle G. leptoceros		Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya and Sudan
	Speke's gazelle G. spekei		Horn of Africa
	Neumann's gazelle G. erlangeri		Arabian Peninsula
	†Saudi gazelle G. saudiya[9][10]		Arabian Peninsula
Eudorcas	Mongalla gazelle E. albonotata		Floodplain and savanna of South Sudan
	Red-fronted gazelle E. rufifrons		The Sahel region of central Africa
	†Red gazelle E. rufina		Mountain areas of North Africa
	Thomson's gazelle E. thomsonii		East Africa
Nanger	Dama gazelle N. dama		Sahara desert and the Sahel
	Grant's gazelle N. granti		Northern Tanzania to South Sudan and Ethiopia, and from the Kenyan coast to Lake Victoria
	Soemmerring'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.^{[citation needed]}

• Genus Gazella
  
  
  
  • 
    Gazella borbonica - European gazelle
  
  
  • 
    Gazella thomasi - Thomas's gazelle
  
  
  • 
    Gazella harmonae - Pliocene of Ethiopia, unusual spiral horns^[11]
    
  
  
  • Gazella praethomsoni
  
  
  • Gazella negevensis
  
  
  • Gazella triquetrucornis
  
  
  • Gazella negevensis
  
  
  • Gazella capricornis
  
  
  
  


• Subgenus Vetagazella
  
  
  
  • Gazella sinensis
  
  
  • Gazella deperdita
  
  
  • 
    Gazella pilgrimi - steppe gazelle
  
  
  • 
    Gazella leile - Leile's gazelle
  
  
  • 
    Gazella praegaudryi - Japanese gazelle
    
  
  
  • Gazella gaudryi
  
  
  • Gazella paotehensis
  
  
  • Gazella dorcadoides
  
  
  • Gazella altidens
  
  
  • Gazella mongolica
  
  
  • 
    Gazella lydekkeri - Ice Age gazelle
  
  
  • Gazella blacki
  
  
  • Gazella parasinensis
  
  
  • Gazella kueitensis
  
  
  • Gazella paragutturosa
  
  
  
  


• Subgenus Gazella
  
  • Gazella janenschi
  
  


• Subgenus Trachelocele
  
  
  
  • Gazella atlantica
  
  
  • Gazella tingitana
  
  
  
  


• Subgenus Deprezia
  
  • Gazella psolea
  
  


• Genus Nanger
  
  • Nanger vanhoepeni
  
  

Gallery

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  Grant's gazelle (male)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Mhorr gazelle
  

  
  

  
  


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  Cuvier's gazelle (female)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Thomson's gazelle (male)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Speke's gazelle (female)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Goitered gazelle (females and young)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Chinkara (female)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Dorcas gazelle (female)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Red-fronted gazelle
  

  
  

  
  


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  Mountain gazelle (male)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Soemmerring's gazelle (females)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Slender-horned gazelle (male)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Gazelles on one of the vases made for the Alhambra palace
  

  
  

  
  

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gazella.

• 
  Quotations related to Gazelles at Wikiquote