Goitered Gazelle - Gazella subgutturosa

• Gazella subgutturosa subgutterosa (Persian goitered gazelle)
• Gazella subgutturosa hillieriana (Mongolian goitered gazelle)
• Gazella subgutturosa marica (Arabian Sand gazelle or Reem)
• Gazella subgutturosa yarkandensis

One of the most 'un-gazelle-like' gazelles, the Goitered gazelle has been placed in its own subgenus: Trachelocele. Goiter is a condition in which the thyroid gland expands. While goitered gazelles do not actually have goiter, the expanded throats and necks of the males in the breeding season resembles this condition.

Unlike the rest of the ‘true gazelles', only the male Goitered gazelles carry horns, which grow 25-43 cm long. Black in colour and sharply diverging, the horns form an ‘S' shape, bending up backwards, and turning at the tips.

The light brown body of the Goitered gazelle darkens towards the belly, where it joins with the white under parts in a crisp line.

The typical facial markings of gazelles is pronounced only in juveniles, with age the forehead and nose turn white, with only the brown eye-nose stripe remaining.

The tail, 15-20 cm long, is black in colour, conspicuous against the white buttocks when raised in flight, giving them their other name: Black-tailed gazelle.

The body length is between 90-115 cm, while their shoulder height is 60-80 cm. An adult Goitered gazelle weighs between 18 and 33 kg.

Group of gazelles in front of barbed wire

Habitat

Goitered gazelles inhabit semi-deserts, steppes, valleys, mountain slopes and alpine grasslands, ascending to altitudes of 2,700 m a.s.l. in summer.

Goitered gazelles are semi-nomadic, undertaking limited but regular seasonal movements. In spring, autumn and dry summers, gazelles move over short distances in search of water and pasture. Herds cover 10-30 kilometres per day in the winter, with these distances reduced nearly tenfold in summer. Normally, if the habitat is suitable, they are widely dispersed.
Basic habitat requirements are the availability of water, shallow snow cover in winter and broken terrain (low basins and hollows that stay snow-free), or vegetation as cover.

Food

They feed on a variety of (desert) plants, such as Anabasis brevifolia, Haloxylon ammodendron, Stipa gobica, Allium spp., Salsola spp., Artemisia spp., Halogeton spp. and Iljina regelii. More than 85 species of plants (grasses, forbs, shrubs and lichens) have been recorded in their diet. The composition of their diet varies seasonally and regionally. Daily intake of food is up to six kilograms of green matter, about 30% of an adult's body weight, and these animals derive most of the moisture they need from it.

Behaviour

In summer small family groups of 2-5 animals are formed, while in winter large herds with dozens or even hundreds of individuals are the norm.

During the breeding season, adult males become territorial, using dung piles placed at strategic locations to mark their territory. During this time, males emit hoarse bellows, and glandular activity increases significantly, with the result that the male is often seen smearing secretions on objects. Males hold these individual territories during the rut in November-December.

During summer, most activity takes place in the late afternoon and early morning, consisting of slow movements while grazing. At midday, herds take shelter in the shade, where they excavate shallow oval-shaped pits to lie in. During the cooler winter months, this midday break is significantly reduced and sometimes even eliminated. If disturbed from its shelter, a goitred gazelle rapidly flees for 200-300 meters, pausing to assess the danger from a distance. A broad, circular path is then taken back to the original resting spot. Extremely speedy, these gazelles can run at speeds of up to 60 km/h.

Goitered gazelles are adversely affected by severe winter conditions and heavy snowfall, which occur on average every 15-20 years in Transcaucasia, much less frequently than in Central Asia. The winter blizzards cause periodic mass mortality (every seven to eight years on average)

Reproduction

Some females conceive at six or seven months of age, most at one and a half years. Males may breed at one and a half years of age, but most do not before the age of two and a half years of age. Mating takes place from late November-February. Gestation lasts five to five and a half months. Young, usually two, are born in May or June. The young lie camouflaged away from their mothers for the first 2 weeks, gaining strength and stability. The mother generally returns to nurse them three times a day.

Wolf, (Shepherd's) dog, feral dog, red fox, corsac fox and raptors (e.g. golden eagle), Leopard, Asian cheetah (extinct).

World population

According to Mallon and Kingswood (2001) the world population is between 120,000 and 140,000. But populations throughout the range have decreased since then and are subject to continuing illegal hunting and habitat loss. Another expert, Pereladova, estimates the world population around 40,000 to 50,000 individuals. Detailled information is lacking about the world population developments.

Trend

Overhunting and habitat loss have drastically reduced its numbers during the last decades, for example:

• 200,000 to < 10,000 during the mid-1930s to late-1970s in Kazakhstan
• 13,000 to 4,000 during 1989-1999 in Azerbaijan
• 8,000-10,000 to 5,000 during the 1970s and early 1980s in Uzbekistan
• 3,000 to 300 during 1968-1978 in Turkey (south-eastern Anatolia)
• 200 to 70-80 during 1986-1996 in Tajikistan

Other recent population estimates include: about 60,000 in Mongolia; 30,000-50,000 in Kazakhstan; 4,000-5,600 in Turkmenistan; 300 in Turkey. The species is now extinct in Armenia, Georgia and possibly in Kyrgyzstan.

Azerbaijan

Numbers of gazelles in Azerbaijan were estimated to be 40,000 in the mid-1920s when a sharp decline began. Up to 2,000 were killed annually by hunters during the 1930s in the Transcaucasian region. The rate of decline increased and by 1961 it was estimated that fewer than 200 remained in Azerbaijan.

Three wildlife sanctuaries were established in 1961 to conserve the remaining populations. Numbers then increased steadily, reaching 1,700 in 1973 and 4,000 in 1982. At the present time, almost all remaining gazelles in Azerbaijan occur in the Shirvan steppes, predominantly in protected areas.

Goitred gazelles inhabiting the Mugan plain in Azerbaijan have also a tendency to decreasing.

According to the IUCN Red List there are c. 4,000 Goitered Gazelles in Azerbaijan.

Georgia

In the 1980s, single animals and small groups were seen in the steppes of south-eastern Georgia. These animals were presumed to have originated from the population in adjacent areas of Azerbaijan, which had been increasing since the early 1970s following improved protection measures. The possibility of natural re-colonisation has diminished somewhat with the recent decline of the Azerbaijan gazelle population and the proximity of the Georgian border to areas of conflict in Azerbaijan.

Kazakhstan

The Goitered gazelle population in Kazakhstan was estimated to be more than 200,000 in the 1930s, but declined steadily and only 10,000 remained at the end of the 1970s.

Improved protection led to a gradual recovery in Kazakhstan, and numbers currently stand at 30,000-50,000, though populations are fragmented. Half of the population live on the Buzachi Peninsula and other parts of Mangistau District, area encompassing only 1,5 % of their natural habitat.
The second largest population is found in Altyn-Emel National Park in the Ili Valley. During summer 5,000-6,000 Goitered gazelles occur here (compared to 2,000-3,000 in the mid-1980s) and in winter numbers may increase to 10,000.

Current population trends are varied, with a gradual increase in the two main populations and a decrease in the smaller fragmented populations.

According to the IUCN Red List a large former population (c. 15,000) has actually drastically declined in recent years.

Uzbekistan

Numbers and range have decreased sharply, in Uzbekistan, over the last 30-50 years, especially during the 1970s.

The range of the species is steadily shrinking and fragmenting, and surviving populations have become isolated. Only a few gazelles survive in the foothills bordering the Fergana Valley of south-eastern Uzbekistan. They have disappeared from much of the Ustyurt Plateau, where they were common until 1950, and the only sizeable population in that area is located in the Sam and Magaikum Sands. In the Kyzyl Kum Desert, gazelle distribution is sporadic, with one stable population in the sands of the northwest.

Recent estimates of the Uzbekistan population are 3,000 and still declining.

Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgyzstan the numbers had rdeclined to very low levels in 1970s.
The species has now been reduced to the verge of extinction and it may already have been extirpated.

Tajikistan

In Tajikistan the Goitered gazelle occurred in all the desert and semi desert areas of the North and the southwest of the country. However, a radical decline took place between 1935 and 1985, and numbers have dwindled to the edge of extinction.

The area of available habitat has continued to decrease, especially since 1991-92, because large numbers of people have moved to the south of the country.
The maximum area of Goitered gazelle distribution is only 300-350 km2 at present and within 150-200 km2 of this, occurrence is only sporadic. The gazelle population was estimated at about 200 in 1986 and 100 in 1989.

Currently only 70-80 gazelles survive in two isolated populations in Tajikistan.

Turkmenistan

At the beginning of 20th century, Goitered gazelles inhabited all the plains and wide river valleys in the foothills in Turkmenistan (about 76% of the country) and their numbers may have reached 250,000-300,000. At the beginning of the 1940s, there were still an estimated 100,000 gazelles, but by the 1960s, gazelles had been extirpated from many areas and numbers had declined to 15,000.

Better protection at the beginning of the 1980s led to a small increase in numbers. However, during the summer of 1983, extreme high temperatures and draught caused heavy mortality through direct effects of the drought or poisoning from drinking saline water. In Badkhyz alone, at least 700 gazelles died.

Goitered gazelle distribution now covers only about 3% of the country in Turkmenistan and their numbers total no more than a few thousand. Most of the remaining population is concentrated in southern Turkmenistan, in Badkhyz (6,000 gazelles), and karabil. There is an introduced population of about 2,000 gazelles on Ogurchinsk Island in the Aral See (400 in 1994). Most of the remaining animals are found in protected areas.

Mongolia

In Mongolia recent estimates of the population suggested about 53,000 - 60,000 animals at the beginning of the 1990s. Numbers are currently believed to be increasing. Some areas of former habitat are being reoccupied as numbers slowly increase.

According to the IUCN Red List the population in Mongolia is thought to contain the largest remaining population of the species, so holding an estimated 40-50% of the global population. However, this population has been heavily reduced by poaching in the last 2-3 years and this decline is continuing.

According to Reading about 100,000 gazelles were estimated during the mid '90s and numbers have been declining since.

Arabian Sand Gazelle

The total population of Arabian Sand Gazelle is estimated to be less than 10,000 and certainly less than 10,000 mature individuals, with country population estimates as follows:

• Saudi Arabia (2,650-3,050 in four populations)
• United Arab Emirates (up to 1,000)
• Oman (no information on population size)
• Bahrain (350-400 on Hawar; 450-500 on Bahrain Island)
• Yemen (no information)
• Syria (approximately 100 seen in southern Syria in 1998)
• Jordan (rare)
• Iraq (up to 1,000 were reported in 2001)

• Azerbaijan
• China
• Georgia
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Mongolia
• Tajikistan
• Turkey
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan

• Mongolian Semi desert
• Caucasus
• Kopetdag-Badhys
• Mongolia
• Riparian forests of Amudaria

Current distribution Goitered Gazelle
Source: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Range map of Goitered gazelle

In the past, Goitered gazelles were reported from as far West as Kilik, Turkey.

The Transcaucasia population has been isolated from other populations of Goitered gazelles for centuries, probably since prehistoric times.

During the 19th century, Goitered gazelles ranged through Azerbaijan into Georgia and Armenia. Goitered gazelles probably also occurred in the Araks valley, between Nakhichevan and Erevan in Armenia, but they had become extinct there before the end of the 19th century.

Goitered gazelles formerly had an unbroken range throughout the semi-desert and desert zones of Kazakhstan, where the northern limit of their range reached.

Goitered gazelles formerly occurred in all the desert and semi-desert zones of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Goitered gazelles in Mongolia formerly occupied the whole of the semi-desert zones, northwest through the Great Lake Basin to the basin of Lake Khiargas Nuur.

Largest distribution of any antelope

The distribution of the Goitered gazelle is the largest of any antelope, ranging from the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula and the mountain valleys of Transcaucasia to the steppes of Central Asia, Mongolia and China.

Turkey

In Turkey the distribution is restricted to the vicinity of the Turkish-Syrian border in South-eastern Anatolia. A few gazelles still occur in the area around Ceylanpinar, between Kirikhan and Mardin. About 300 are currently estimated to survive in the wild.

Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan largest numbers occur in Mangistau District in western Kazakhstan and Atyn-Emel National Park in the Ili Valley of the east.

Mongolia

Current range in Mongolia covers 470,000 km2 and extends east to about 113°E in the Ongon District of Sukhbaatar Aimag province. Goitred gazelles are distributed in the desert and desert steppe in the whole southern part of Mongolia and have a patchy distribution in the Great Lakes Basin.

China

Goitered gazelles occur widely in western and northern China, in Xinjiang, northern Qinghai, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia. The eastern limit of their distribution lies at approximately 115°N.

Natural disasters

Gazelles are susceptible to the effects of icy (dzud) conditions in winter. Gazelle mortality from natural disasters, such as winters with heavy snowfall and sudden cold spells, may reach 20%. Summer mortality from drought and consumption of saline water is rare compared to that in the winter and usually does not exceed 20%.

Habitat loss

Increasing use of their habitat for agriculture poses a problem, and damage to the environment caused by overuse of pesticides, especially in Turkey. Many areas have been converted into agricultural lands and suitable habitat is often confined to a few remnants of steppe habitats.

Livestock competition

In the desert zone, competition with domestic livestock has increased and permanent occupation of waterholes by livestock prevents gazelles from gaining access to water. As a result of overgrazing a lot of the pastures became degraded.
Competition with livestock is not so much about the competition for food as research has shown that the gazelle prefers feeding on plant species, which are quite different from those, which sheep and goats prefer. Gazelles can even regularly feed on plants that are poisonous to sheep. Problem is more competition for water places and disturbance and poaching from herdsman, killing of gazelles by the dogs of the herdsman etc.

Economic problems

The overall situation within protected areas has deteriorated in the changed conditions that followed the break-up of the USSR. Economic problems following the dissolution of the USSR and independence have led to increased use of natural resources by local people, and have hampered efforts to protect the environment. (Internal) armed conflicts that have taken place since independence may also have adversely affected the remnant Goitered gazelle population.

Illegal commercial hunting

In the past Goitered gazelles were hunted to sustain families. When the hunting of gazelles was to sustain families of farmers, shepherds and other local people it was fairly sustainable and the species thrived. But as soon as illegal commercial hunting (poaching) began, in order to bring meat to the market this changed rapidly. People now hunt at night using bright lights, night vision, vehicles, motorbikes and heavy guns. Sustainable hunting turned into a bloody slaughter and put most remaining populations at high risk for survival as these population are seriously endangered now.

Multiple threats

Besides the poaching that has caused the isolation of populations also habitat fragmentation from road construction, increased traffic, lack of landplaning and uncontrolled mining, canals (irrigation) and fence construction etc. has led to further loss of habitat and fragmentation.

Reproduction may be adversely affected in regions where the population is extremely fragmented and is on the verge of extinction. Goitered gazelles undertake local and/or seasonal movements and, in some areas they can no make longer migrations.

The (military) conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has affected the Goitered gazelles and their habitats. The >1 million refugees and their life stock have put an enormous pressure on the habitats causing devastating erosion and landslides.

Numbers were estimated at 120,000–140,000 in 2001 and the taxon has a very wide distribution across the Middle East and Asia. However, populations throughout the range are subject to illegal hunting and habitat loss. Declines are widely reported and continuing. The population in Turkmenistan has almost disappeared in recent years. The largest population in Kazakhstan, formerly numbering c. 20,000, has also drastically declined in the last few years. In Mongolia, a substantial proportion of the known global population remained until recently, but heavy poaching has wiped out almost all the large herds and cut the numbers by well over 50%. Overall the rate of decline is now estimated to have exceeded the figure of 30% over 10 years that qualifies for Vulnerable under criterion A2.

Protection

Legally protected in most range states, although enforcement is not universally effective. The species occurs in many protected areas across its range. The species has been reintroduced to various parts of its former range (e.g., Al Talila, 30 km south of Palmyra in Syria), and reintroduction of the nominate form is under consideration in Georgia.

It is considered Endangered in:

• Azerbaijan
• Georgia
• Tajikistan
• Turkey
• Uzbekistan

It is considered Vulnerable in:

• China
• Iran
• Iraq
• Kazakhstan
• Mongolia
• Turkmenistan

The Arabian Sand Gazelle

occurs in several protected areas, including: Al-Khunfah, Harrat al-Harrah, Mahazat as-Sayd, Uruq Bani Ma’arid (Saudi Arabia); Arabian Oryx Sanctuary (Oman); and South Bahrain Island (Bahrain); although not formally designated as a PA, access to Hawar Island is restricted.

In the past important game species, valuable species for (eco-)tourism.

• Legal aspects of (Re-)introduction of large herbivores

• Large herbivores on the move
• Status report 2007 of the large herbivores of the palaeartic

• With land and road planning habitat en migration requirements of the goitred gazelles should be taken in consideration.
• Political support for better enforcement of wildlife protection laws.
• Strict control on the distribution and ownership of weapons.

• Intensify anti poaching efforts (combat poaching), stricter implementation of protection of gazelles. Efforts to combat predation by stray/shepherds dogs should be strengthened. Wildlife protection officials should be provided with efficient transport and other essential equipment.
• Strict control on hunting.
• It is essential to continue the captive-breeding program at Ceylanpinar and Bukhara and reintroduce gazelles to suitable areas of habitat when protection from hunting/poaching can be guaranteed.
• Set up captive-breeding centres throughout its range.
• Release animals from captive breeding centres back into their former range.
• Regulate water sources, and provide sufficient access for wild large herbivores.
• Drilling wells, (only for wild large herbivores/not domestic), in areas currently without surface water sources would allow gazelles to utilise these areas year round, and could lead to an expansion of the population.
• Conservation priorities are in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Mongolia.
• Initiate re-introduction projects throughout its former range.

Human dimension work to educate shepherds and other people living in areas of (former) gazelle distribution to persuade them of the need to conserve gazelles and other wildlife.

Goitred gazelle used to be a important game species. High numbers of gazelles that are visible to the public are an important tourist attraction for foreign tourist.

• It is essential to carry out detailed surveys, with one uniform monitoring method, to determine current distribution and status of remaining populations.
• More research on the biology and ecology of the species needs to be carried out.
  Better exchange of knowledge, between the range states and people working on and for gazelles.