After talking about The Sahel as a biogeographical region and the scimitar-horned oryx as its symbol, it is time to talk about another endangered species inhabiting the same areas of the world.
The dama gazelle lives in the Sahara Desert and The Sahel. Its natural populations are spread along Niger, Mali and Chad.
The can reach up to 120 centimeters to the shoulder and weight up to 75 kilograms, reason why they are considered as the biggest type of gazelle, with incredibly long legs, which help them to release heat.
This species is commonly divided in three different subspecies:
–Nanger dama mhorr, normally called mhorr gazelle, extint in the wild since 1968, but there are still individuals kept in captivity for breeding programs in Europe, Middle East and North America and Northern Africa.
–Nanger dama dama, ony kept in cativity in a zoo in United Arab Emirates and very rare in the wild.
-Nanger dama ruficollis, called addra gazelle, rare in the wild, but commonly spread along breeding programs in Europe, North America and Middle East.
This species faces so many different threats in the wild:
-Competition against domestic livestock, as this species requires more water than so many other species of gazelle, taking in count that it lives in dry areas, water sources are normally used by farmers, which put pressure on their populations. Diseases transmit by domestic animals are reinforcing the decline in their populations.
-Human threats, by cutting the branches of the trees gazelles feed on, and because of turist, which make gazelles run away from the areas covered by trees and as a result, the normally die of overheating.
This species has lost up to the 80% of its population in just one decade. The IUCN has declared it as “critically endangered” with a population of less than 500 individuals (some of the most accurate studies estimate around 300).
Looking forward to preserve this species, a reserve for mhorr gazelles was set up in 1971 in Almeria, South of Spain, in a centre calles “Rescue Park for Saharian Fauna”. This centre is still working on conservation nowadays.
Author: Juan Alférez, Biologist, Conservation Rangers Operations Worldwide Collaborator
C.R.O.W. Rangers - Animo et Scientia 