| Eudorcas
rufina |
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| |
| Kingdom |
Animalia |
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|
| Phylum |
Chordata |
| Class |
Mammalia |
| Order |
Artiodactyla
|
| Family |
Bovidae
|
| Subfamily |
Antilopinae |
| Genus |
Eudorcas |
| Species |
Eudorcas
rufina |
| Authority |
Thomas,
1894
|
| |
| English
Name |
Red Gazelle, Rufous Gazelle, Algerian
Gazelle |
| Dutch
Name |
Rode Gazelle, Noord-Algerijnse Gazelle |
| French
Name |
Gazelle Rousse, Gazelle ou Rouge |
| German
Name |
Algerische Gazelle |
| Spanish Name |
Gacela Rufina |
| |
| Synonyms |
Gazella
rufina (Thomas, 1894) |
| |
| Taxonomy |
The
Red Gazelle is listed as a possible subspecies of Eudorcas
rufifrons by Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951). Gentry (1964)
stated that on the basis of skull morphology it represented a separate
species, and it has been regarded as such by most authors. However, there
is continuing doubt concerning the validity of this taxon. It
has been suggested that the only known purchased specimens had been
transported to markets from elsewhere in Africa and that in fact this
species may not represent a valid taxon. (IUCN
SSC Antelope Specialist Group 2008) |
| |
| Characteristics |
This
species was a dark-reddish forest dweller. It was one of the largest
gazelle species with a length of about 152cm (5 ft) and with thick horns
of about 30cm (1 ft) in length. It probably lived in the Atlas Mountains in
Algeria and Morocco. |
| |
| Range
& Habitat |
The
Red Gazelle died out before scientists could study this species. That's
why we don't know anything about its behaviour and ecology. The rich
colours of his fur suggest that this species didn't live in desserts. The
Red Gazelle had probably a small distribution area that was limited to
areas in the North African mountains with relatively much rainfall.
|
| |
| History
& Population |
It
is said that E. Loder captured the last specimen in Algiers some years
before 1894. However, the species was regarded as an enigma in the Atlas
mountains, no one had ever seen a female of the species and even the few
hunters who had seen the males disagreed about their habitat. The only
people who spoke about it with any confidence were the furriers of Oran
who saw it simply as rare and costly pelt which came into their hands only
once every three or four years. By their accounts there was still some
gazelles alive in 1925. In 1929, L. Joleand, a French naturalist defined
its range as the southern Oran-Morocco border country, where it was gone
by the same time as the Bubal
Hartebeest. In 1936, Heim de Balsac, another French naturalist
reported that the species still occurred in the mountainous forests above
Chelif valley between Oran and Algiers. He believed that small numbers of
Red Gazelles probably still lived there, but there are no real sightings.
(Day, 1981) The Red Gazelle was formally declared extinct in the 1996 IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species (Antelope
Specialist Group, 1996).
However, the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species provisionally
reassessed the Red Gazelle as Data Deficient, pending clarification on the
validity of this taxon (IUCN
SSC Antelope Specialist Group 2008).
|
| |
| Extinction
Causes |
This
animal was hunted for its pelt. |
| |
| Museum
Specimens |
There
exist only three museum-specimens of the Red Gazelle. These specimens were
bought on markets in Algiers and Oran in Northern Algeria in the second
half of the 19e century. These specimens are now in the collection of
museums in Paris and London.
|
| |
| Relatives |
The closest related species are the Red-fronted Gazelle (Eudorcas
rufifrons) and Thomson's Gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii). Three other gazelles are
extinct: the Arabian Gazelle (Gazella arabica),
the Queen
of Sheba's Gazelle (Gazella bilkis), and the Saudi
Gazelle (Gazella saudiya).
 
Photos:
the left-hand photo is a Red-fronted Gazelle (Eudorcas rufifrons)
photographed by Andrzej Barabasz in 2006. This
image has been released under
the Creative
Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 Licence. The right-hand
photo is a Thomson's Gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii), photographed by Energo
in 2007 released under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
|
| |
| Links |
Red Gazelle -
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
| |
| References |
Antelope
Specialist Group 1996. Gazella rufina. In: IUCN 2004. 2004 IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>.
Downloaded on 09 March 2006.
Groves, C. P. 2000. Phylogenetic
relationships within recent Antilopini (Bovidae). Pp. 223-233, in Antelopes,
deer, and relatives. Fossil record, behavioral ecology, systematics, and
conservation (E. S. Vrba and G.
B. Schaller, eds.). Yale University Press, New Haven, 341 pp.
IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group
2008. Eudorcas rufina. In: IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>.
Downloaded on 18 December 2008.
Flannery, T. & Schouten, P.
2001. A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals, Atlantic
Monthly Press, New York. ISBN 0871137976. |
|
Last
updated: 18th December 2008.
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page is a part of The
Extinction Website.
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