A gazelle is one 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). 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 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.[3] 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 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.

The following species have galleries on this page:

• Turkmen gazelle (Gazella (subgutturosa) gracilicornis)

• Yarkand gazelle (Gazella (subgutturosa) yarkandensis

• Arabian Gazelle (Gazella arabica)

• Saharan Dorcas Gazelle (Gazella dorcas osiris)

• Tarim Basin Goitered Gazelle (Gazella (subgutturosa) subspecies)

The first two galleries are recent splits of Goitered Gazelles, which have a vast distribution. The goitered or black-tailed gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) is a gazelle found in Georgia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, parts of Iraq and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and in northwest China and Mongolia. The specific name, meaning "full below the throat", refers to the male having an enlargement of the neck and throat during the mating season.

The goitered gazelle inhabits sands and gravel plains and limestone plateau. Large herds were also present in the Near East. Some 6,000 years ago, they were captured and killed with the help of desert kites.[2] Rock art found in Jordan suggests that it was slaughtered ritually.

Its mating behaviour is polygynous and usually occurs in the early winter. It runs at high speed, without the leaping, bounding gait seen in other gazelle species. Throughout much of its range, the goitered gazelle migrates seasonally. Herds cover 10–30 km (6.2–18.6 mi) per day in the winter, with these distances being reduced to about 1–3 km (0.62–1.86 mi) in summer.

Several subspecies have been described, and four forms are distinguished, which used to be treated as separate monotypic species. Gazella marica was traditionally recognised as a subspecies, but has been identified as a species in 2011.

• Persian gazelle (Gazella (subgutturosa) subgutturosa) - southeastern Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Syria, northern and eastern Iraq, Iran, southern Afghanistan, western Pakistan

• Turkmen gazelle (Gazella (subgutturosa) gracilicornis) - Kazakhstan (Buzachi) in the east to about Lake Balkash, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan (See below)

• Yarkand gazelle (Gazella (subgutturosa) yarkandensis) - northern and northwestern China (Xinjiang, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Gansu, Nei Monggol), Mongolia; includes subspecies hilleriana. (See below)

Yarkand Gazelle (Gazella yarkandensis) - Dunhuang Xifu Nature Reserve Gansu China

Turkmen Goitered Gazelle (Gazella gracilicornis) - Karamori National Nature Reserve Xinjiang China - Khazakstan

The Arabian gazelle (Gazella arabica) is a species of gazelle from the Arabian Peninsula

Until recently, it was only known from a single lectotype specimen mistakenly thought to have been collected on the Farasan Islands in the Red Sea in 1825. A 2013 genetic study of the lectotype specimen revealed that skull and skin do not stem from the same individual but belong to two distinct lineages of the mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella), necessitating restriction of the lectotype to the skin to conserve nomenclatural stability. A later study formalized the use of Gazella arabica for the Arabian lineage of the mountain gazelle, and synonymized Gazella erlangeri with G. arabica.

The Arabian gazelle is classified as a vulnerable species. There are many environmental factors affecting the population density of Arabian gazelles, such as human hunting, predation, competition, and climate change. The decline in population is due to human disturbances such as construction and illegal hunting. Other factors include temperature change, and predation (mainly by wolves); as the researchers stated in their findings that, “Wolf encounter rate had a significant negative effect on G. arabica population size, while G. dorcas population size had a significant positive effect, suggesting that wolf predation shapes the population size of both gazelle species (Shalmon, B., Sun, P. & Wronski, T., 2020).

Arabian Gazelle (Gazella arabica) - Shaumari National Park Jordan

The dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas), also known as the ariel gazelle, is a small and common gazelle. The dorcas gazelle stands about 55–65 cm (1.8–2.1 feet) at the shoulder, with a head and body length of 90–110 cm (3–3.5 feet) and a weight of 15–20 kg (33–44 pounds). The numerous subspecies survive on vegetation in grassland, steppe, wadis, mountain desert and in semidesert climates of Africa and Arabia. About 35,000–40,000 exist in the wild.

The scientific name of the dorcas gazelle is Gazella dorcas. It is a member of the genus Gazella and the family Bovidae. The species was first described by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae in 1758.

Although zoologist Theodor Haltenorth considered G. d. pelzelnii to be an independent species, the following six subspecies are identified:

• G. d. subsp. beccarii De Beaux, 1931 – Eritrean dorcas gazelle

• G. d. subsp. dorcas (Linnaeus, 1758) – Egyptian dorcas gazelle

• G. d. subsp. isabella Gray, 1846 – Isabelle dorcas gazelle

• G. d. subsp. massaesyla Cabrera, 1928 – Moroccan dorcas gazelle

• G. d. subsp. osiris Blaine, 1913 – Saharan (or Saharawi) dorcas gazelle (synonym of G. d. subsp. neglecta)

• G. d. subsp. pelzelnii Kohl, 1886 – Pelzeln's gazelle

Saharan Dorcas Gazelle (Gazella dorcas osiris) - Bouhedma NP Tunisia

The following gallery has images of a very rare and very remote subspecies, that is still not present in the literature. This population is very remote in the Tarim Basin, an area that is basically inaccessible to travelers. Don’t ask me how we got there… ;-)

Tarim Basin Goitered Gazelle (Gazella (subgutturosa) subspecies) - Lop Nur Wild Camel Reserve Xinjiang China