Gazelle Explained

A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus Gazella . There are also 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 can run at bursts as high as 60mph or run at a sustained speed of 30mph.[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 fine, easily digestible plants and leaves.

Gazelles are relatively small antelopes, most standing 2- 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. One subspecies 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 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 60to 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

Gazelle is derived from French gazelle, Old French gazel, probably via Old Spanish gacel, probably from North African pronunciation of Arabic: غزال ,[2] [3] Maghrebi pronunciation .[4] To Europe it first came to Old Spanish and Old French, and then around 1600 the word entered the English language.[5] The 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.[6] [7] In many countries in northwestern Sub-Saharan Africa, the gazelle is commonly referred to as "dangelo", meaning "swift deer".[8]

Symbolism or totemism in African families

The gazelle, like the antelope to which it is related, is the totem of many African families. Some examples include the Joof family of the Senegambia region,[9] [10] the Bagananoa of Botswana in Southern Africa (said to be descended from the BaHurutshe),[11] and the Eraraka (or Erarak) clan of Uganda.[12] As is common in many African societies, it is forbidden for the Joof or Eraraka to kill or touch the family totem.[10] [12]

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.[13] 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:

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

Species

The gazelles are divided into three genera and numerous species.[14]

Genus Common and binomial names Image Range
GazellaArabian 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, 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
EudorcasMongalla gazelle
E. albonotata		120pxFloodplain and savanna of South Sudan
Red-fronted gazelle
E. rufifrons		The Sahel region of central Africa
Red gazelle
E. rufina		120pxMountain areas of North Africa
Thomson's gazelle
E. thomsonii		East Africa
NangerDama 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 species

Fossils of genus Gazella are found in Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits of Eurasia and Africa, which occupuied a broader distribution that modern members of the genus. The earliest members of the genus are known from the Middle Miocene of Africa, around 14 million years ago with members of the genus inhabiting Europe from the Late Miocene until their extinction in the region during the Early Pleistocene around 1.8 million years ago.[15]

Notes and References

  1. "Gazelle". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2007, Columbia University Press.
  2. Web site: gazelle Etymology, origin and meaning of gazelle by etymonline . 2023-02-10 . www.etymonline.com . en.
  3. 236.
  4. Web site: gazelle. CNRTL.
  5. Web site: Definition of GAZELLE. 2023-02-23. www.merriam-webster.com. en.
  6. Book: Beauty in Arabic culture. Doris. Behrens-billAbouseif. Illustrated. Markus Wiener Publishers. 1999. 9781558761995. 53.
  7. 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.
  8. Web site: live. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/roJ97b4t-dE. 2021-12-05 . Dangelo (swift deer) . YouTube. 21 December 2020.
  9. [Louis Diène Faye|Faye, Louis Diène]
  10. Book: Gastellu, Jean-Marc. L'égalitarisme économique des Serer du Sénégal. 1981. IRD Editions. 978-2-7099-0591-6. fr. 130.
  11. Book: Chidester. David. African Traditional Religion in South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography: An Annotated Bibliography. Kwenda. Chirevo. Petty. Robert. Tobler. Judy. Wratten. Darrel. 1997-08-07. ABC-CLIO. 978-0-313-03225-7. en. 341.
  12. Roscoe, John, The Northern Bantu: An Account of Some Central African Tribes of the Uganda Protectorate, The University Press (1915), p. 262
  13. Book: Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. Gülru. Necipoğlu. Gülru Necipoğlu. Illustrated. BRILL. 1997. 9789004108721.
  14. Web site: Antilopinae. 2008-07-01.
  15. Bellucci . Luca . Sardella . Raffaele . January 2015 . The last Antilopini bovids from the Early Pleistocene of Italy . Quaternary International . en . 357 . 245–252 . 10.1016/j.quaint.2014.11.024. 2015QuInt.357..245B .
  16. Solounias . N. . Moelleken . S.M.C. . Plavcan . J.M. . 1995 . Predicting the diet of extinct bovids using masseteric morphology . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 15 . 4 . 195–805 . 10.1080/02724634.1995.10011262. 1995JVPal..15..795S .
  17. Geraads, D.. 2012 . Pliocene Bovidae (Mammalia) from the Hadar Formation of Hadar and Ledi-Geraru, Lower Awash, Ethiopia . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 32 . 1 . 180–197 . 10.1080/02724634.2012.632046. etal. Ledi-Geraru . 2012JVPal..32..180G . 86230742 .
  18. Tchernov . E. . Ginsburg . L. . etal . 1987 . Miocene mammals of the Negev (Israel) . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 7 . 3 . 284–310 . 10.1080/02724634.1987.10011661. 1987JVPal...7..284T .
  19. Geraads . D.. Raynal . J.. Sbihi-Alaoui . F. . February 2010 . Mammalian faunas from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Casablanca (Morocco) . Historical Biology . 22 . 1–3 . 275–285 . 10.1080/08912960903458011. 2010HBio...22..275G. 128756698.
  20. Sponheimer . M. . Reed . K.E. . Kaye Reed . Lee-Thorp . J.A. . June 1999 . Combining isotopic and ecomorphological data to refine bovid paleodietary reconstruction: a case study from the Makapansgat Limeworks hominin locality . Journal of Human Evolution . 36 . 6 . 705–718 . 10.1006/jhev.1999.0300 . 10330334. 1999JHumE..36..705S .
  21. Khan . A. . 2009 . Mammalian new remains from chinji. The Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences . 19 . 4 . 224–229 . 14 August 2022.
  22. 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 . 14 August 2022.
  23. Merceron . G. . de Bonis . L. . etal . February 2005 . Dental microwear of fossil bovids from northern Greece: paleoenvironmental conditions in the eastern Mediterranean during the Messinian . Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology . 217 . 3–4 . 173–185 . 10.1016/j.palaeo.2004.11.019. 2005PPP...217..173M .
  24. Bouvrain . G. . 1996 . The gazelles from the late Miocene of Macedonia, Greece . Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie . 199 . 1 . 111–32 . 10.1127/njgpa/199/1996/111.
  25. Khan . M.A. . Asim . M. . etal . August 2021 . New remains of Gazella (Bovidae) from Middle Miocene, Pakistan . Arabian Journal of Geosciences . 14 . 17. 1703 . 10.1007/s12517-021-07885-8. 2021ArJG...14.1703K . 236948573 .
  26. Meng . X.. Zhu . D. . etal . September 2010 . Late Cenozoic stratigraphy and paleomagnetic chronology of the Zanda Basin, Tibet, and records of the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau . Acta Geologica Sinica . 82 . 1 . 63–72 . 10.1111/j.1755-6724.2008.tb00325.x. 128749824.
  27. Leslie . D.M. . July 2010 . Procapra picticaudata (Artiodactyla: Bovidae) . Mammalian Species . 42 . 861 . 138–148 . 10.1644/861.1. 20998647 . free .
  28. Vislobokova . I. . 2005 . On Pliocene faunas with Proboscideans in the territory of the former Soviet Union . Quaternary International . 126-128 . 93–105 . 10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.017. 2005QuInt.126...93V .
  29. Vislobokova . I. . Dmitrieva . E. . Kalmykov . N. . 1995 . Artiodactyls From the Late Pliocene of Udunga, Western Trans-Baikal, Russia . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 15 . 1 . 146–159 . 10.1080/02724634.1995.10011214. 1995JVPal..15..146V .
  30. Fillion . E.N. . Harrison . T. . Kwekason . A. . June 2022 . A nonanalog Pliocene ungulate community at Laetoli with implications for the paleoecology of Australopithecus afarensis . Journal of Human Evolution . 167 . 103182 . 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103182. 35428490 . 248141011 . free . 2022JHumE.16703182F .

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