Gazelle

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
Type species
	Gazella gazella;
Species
	Several, see text

A gazelle is any 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 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] One species is extinct: the Queen of Sheba's 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 70 cm (24 to 28 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 literature with female beauty.^[6] In many countries in Northwestern Sub-Saharan Africa, the gazelle is commonly referred to as "dangelo", meaning "swift deer".^[7]

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,^[8]^[9] the Bagananoa of Botswana in Southern Africa - said to be descended of the BaHurutshe,^[10] and the Eraraka (or Erarak) clan of Uganda.^[11] As common in many African societies, it is forbidden for the Joof or Eraraka to kill or touch the family totem.^[9]^[11]

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.^[12] 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 gazelle!
Then I say, after freeing her from her fetters:
You are free for the sake of Layla, for ever!^[12]

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.^[13]

Genus	Common and binomial names	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 Southern Israel
	Goitered gazelle G. subgutturosa	Azerbaijan, eastern Georgia, part of Iran, parts of Iraq and southwestern Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Gobi Desert
	Arabian sand gazelle G. marica	Syrian Desert, southeastern Turkey, and Arabian Desert
	Chinkara or Indian gazelle G. bennettii	Iran, Pakistan and India
	Mountain gazelle G. gazella	Israel, the Golan Heights, Dubai and Turkey
	Rhim gazelle G. leptoceros	Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya and Sudan
	Speke's gazelle G. spekei	Horn of Africa
	Erlanger's gazelle G. erlangeri	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
- - Thomas's gazelle
- Gazella harmonae - Pliocene of Ethiopia, unusual spiral horns^[14]
Subgenus
- - steppe gazelle
- - Leile's gazelle
- Gazella praegaudryi
- Gazella mongolica - this is not the Procapra gutturosa
Subgenus Gazella
Subgenus Trachelocele
- Gazella atlantica - Atlantic gazelle
- Gazella tingitana
Subgenus Deprezia
- Gazella psolea
Genus Nanger

Gallery[]

Grant's gazelle (male)
Mhorr gazelle
Cuvier's gazelle (female)
Thomson's gazelle (male)
Speke's gazelle (female)
Goitered gazelle (females and young)
Chinkara (female)
Dorcas gazelle (female)
Red-fronted gazelle
Mountain gazelle (male)
Soemmerring's gazelle (females)
Slender-horned gazelle (male)
Gazelles on one of the vases made for the Alhambra palace

References[]

^ "Gazelle". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2007, Columbia University Press.
^ Eva Verena Bärmann; et al. (2013), "The curious case of Gazella arabica", Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde, 78 (3): 220–225, doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2012.07.003
^ Skeat, Walter W. (1910). "gazelle". An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 236.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b "gazelle". CNRTL.
^ Merriam-Webster - Gazelle, Accessed: 22 December 2009
^ Behrens-billAbouseif, Doris (1999). Beauty in Arabic culture (Illustrated ed.). Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 53. ISBN 9781558761995.
^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roJ97b4t-dE&feature=youtu.be
^ Faye, Louis Diène, Mort et naissance: le monde Sereer, Nouvelles Éditions africaines (1983), p. 74, ISBN 9782723608688
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Gastellu, Jean-Marc (M. Sambe - 1937), L'égalitarisme économique des Serer du Sénégal, IRD Editions (1981), p. 130, ISBN 9782709905916 [1]
^ Chidester, David; Kwenda, Chirevo; Petty, Robert; Tobler, Judy; and Wratten, Darrel ; African Traditional Religion in South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography: An Annotated Bibliography, ABC-CLIO (1997), p. 341, ISBN 9780313032257 [2]
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Roscoe, John, The Northern Bantu: An Account of Some Central African Tribes of the Uganda Protectorate, The University Press (1915), p. 262
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Necipoğlu, Gülru (1997). Gülru Necipoğlu (ed.). Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World (Illustrated ed.). BRILL. ISBN 9789004108721.
^ "Antilopinae". Retrieved 1 July 2008.
^ Geraads, D.; et al. (2012). "Pliocene Bovidae (Mammalia) from the Hadar Formation of Hadar and Ledi-Geraru, Lower Awash, Ethiopia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (1): 180–197. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.632046. S2CID 86230742.

External links[]

Quotations related to Gazelles at Wikiquote

[1] "Gazelle". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2007, Columbia University Press.

[2] Eva Verena Bärmann; et al. (2013), "The curious case of Gazella arabica", Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde, 78 (3): 220–225, doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2012.07.003

[3] Skeat, Walter W. (1910). "gazelle". An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 236.

[cnrtl-4] Jump up to: ^a ^b "gazelle". CNRTL.

[5] Merriam-Webster - Gazelle, Accessed: 22 December 2009

[abouseifp53-6] Behrens-billAbouseif, Doris (1999). Beauty in Arabic culture (Illustrated ed.). Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 53. ISBN 9781558761995.

[7] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roJ97b4t-dE&feature=youtu.be

[8] Faye, Louis Diène, Mort et naissance: le monde Sereer, Nouvelles Éditions africaines (1983), p. 74, ISBN 9782723608688

[Gastllu-9] Jump up to: ^a ^b Gastellu, Jean-Marc (M. Sambe - 1937), L'égalitarisme économique des Serer du Sénégal, IRD Editions (1981), p. 130, ISBN 9782709905916 [1]

[10] Chidester, David; Kwenda, Chirevo; Petty, Robert; Tobler, Judy; and Wratten, Darrel ; African Traditional Religion in South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography: An Annotated Bibliography, ABC-CLIO (1997), p. 341, ISBN 9780313032257 [2]

[Rescoe-11] Jump up to: ^a ^b Roscoe, John, The Northern Bantu: An Account of Some Central African Tribes of the Uganda Protectorate, The University Press (1915), p. 262

[Gulrup15-12] Jump up to: ^a ^b Necipoğlu, Gülru (1997). Gülru Necipoğlu (ed.). Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World (Illustrated ed.). BRILL. ISBN 9789004108721.

[13] "Antilopinae". Retrieved 1 July 2008.

[Geraads2012-14] Geraads, D.; et al. (2012). "Pliocene Bovidae (Mammalia) from the Hadar Formation of Hadar and Ledi-Geraru, Lower Awash, Ethiopia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (1): 180–197. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.632046. S2CID 86230742.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]