Gazelle

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the antelope species. For other uses, see Gazelle (disambiguation).

Gazella
Temporal range: Pliocene to recent
Chinkara from Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Antilopinae
Tribe: Antilopini
Genus: Gazella
Blainville, 1816
Type species
Capra dorcas[1]
)
Species

Several, see text

A gazelle is one of many

subgenera of Gazella. A third former subgenus, Procapra
, includes three living species of Asian gazelles.

Gazelles are known as swift animals. Some can run at bursts as high as 100 km/h (60 mph) or run at a sustained speed of 50 km/h (30 mph).

southwest and central Asia and the Indian subcontinent
. They tend to live in herds, and eat fine, 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

threatened to varying degrees. Closely related to the true gazelles are the Tibetan goa 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 thomsonii), sometimes referred to as a "tommie". It is around 60 to 70 cm (24 to 28 in) in shoulder height and is coloured brown and white with a distinguishing black stripe. The males have long, often curved, horns. Like many other prey species, tommies 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 their name

Byzantine-era mosaic of gazelle in Caesarea, Israel

Gazelle is derived from

Arab people traditionally hunted the gazelle. Later appreciated for its grace, however, it became a symbol most commonly associated in Arabic literature with human female beauty.[9][10] In many countries in Northwestern Sub-Saharan Africa, the gazelle is commonly referred to as "dangelo", meaning "swift deer".[11]

Symbolism or totemism in African families

The gazelle, like the antelope to which it is related, is the

Senegambia region,[12][13] the Bagananoa of Botswana in Southern Africa (said to be descended from the BaHurutshe),[14] and the Eraraka (or Erarak) clan of Uganda.[15] As is common in many African societies, it is forbidden for the Joof or Eraraka to kill or touch the family totem.[13][15]

Poetry

One of the traditional themes of Arabic love poetry involves comparing the gazelle with the beloved, and linguists theorize

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![16]

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

For gazelle species by population, see List of even-toed ungulates by population

The gazelles are divided into three genera and numerous species.[17]

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 Southern Israel
Goitered gazelle
G. subgutturosa
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, the West Bank, 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

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 the Middle East.[citation needed]

Gallery

References

  1. OCLC 62265494
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  2. ^ "Gazella". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.
  3. ^ "Gazelle". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2007, Columbia University Press.
  4. doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2012.07.003
  5. ^ "gazelle | Etymology, origin and meaning of gazelle by etymonline". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
  6. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1910). "gazelle". An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 236.
  7. ^ a b "gazelle". CNRTL.
  8. ^ "Definition of GAZELLE". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  9. ISBN 9781558761995
    .
  10. ^ Jokha Alharthi (PhD), (Sultan Qaboos University, College of Arts and Social Sciences - Arabic Department) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288181275_The_Representation_of_the_Beloved's_Body_in_classical_Arabic_Poetry Note in particular pages 7 and 8 of this (linked-to) paper published at a conference in 2015.
  11. ^ "Dangelo (swift deer)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021.
  12. ISBN 9782723608688
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-2-7099-0591-6
    .
  14. ISBN 978-0-313-03225-7
    .
  15. ^ a b Roscoe, John, The Northern Bantu: An Account of Some Central African Tribes of the Uganda Protectorate, The University Press (1915), p. 262
  16. ^
    ISBN 9789004108721
    .
  17. ^ "Antilopinae". Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  18. doi:10.1080/02724634.1995.10011262
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  23. ^ a b Khan, A. (2009). "Mammalian new remains from chinji" (PDF). The Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences. 19 (4): 224–229. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  24. ^ Chen, G. (1997). "Gazella blacki Teilhard and Young, 1931 (Bovicae, Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the Late Pliocene of Hefeng, Jingle District, Shanxi Province". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 35 (3): 189–200. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  25. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2004.11.019
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  32. S2CID 248141011
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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gazella.
  • Quotations related to Gazelles at Wikiquote
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