Mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella)

Species information

Videos and images

Facts

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Mammalia
Order	Artiodactyla
Family	Bovidae
Genus	Gazella (1)
Size	Male head-body length: 101-115 cm (2) Female head-body length: 98-101 cm (2) Male horn length: 22-29.4 cm (2) Female horn length: 5.8-11.5 cm (2) Ear length: 11-12.5 cm (2) Tail length: 8 – 13 cm (2) Male weight: 17 – 29.5 kg (2) (3) Female weight: 16 – 25 kg (2) (3)

Status

Classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List (1). The taxonomy of Gazella gazella has been hotly debated in the past, with some populations having been described as independent species, later being renamed as subspecies of the mountain gazelle, and then later being re-described as independent species again. To complicate matters, a number of gazelle populations in Arabian Peninsula are not considered pure, but rather the result of cross-breeding between two or more unknown species or subspecies (2). Though scientists currently describe six subspecies for mountain gazelles (1), recent genetic research has demonstrated that the taxonomy of this species has to be changed considerably (2).