|Scientific Name:||Nanger dama|
|Species Authority:||(Pallas, 1766)|
Gazella dama (Pallas, 1766)
|Taxonomic Notes:||Usually included in the genus Gazella, Dama Gazelle is here included in the genus Nanger, along with Soemmering's Gazelle N. soemmerringi and Grant's Gazelle N. granti, following (Groves 2000 in press, Grubb 2005). Cano (1984) recognized three subspecies (provisionally retained by Scholte in press).|
|Red List Category & Criteria:||Critically Endangered A2cd; C2a(i) ver 3.1|
|Assessor(s):||Newby, J., Wacher, T., Lamarque, F., Cuzin, F. & de Smet, K.|
|Reviewer(s):||Mallon, D.P. (Antelope Red List Authority) & Hoffmann, M. (Global Mammal Assessment)|
The sustained decline due to uncontrolled hunting and habitat loss has continued and is now estimated to have exceeded 80% over 10 years. Extensive field surveys have been made since 2001, but all subpopulations encountered are very small, with all at risk from unmanaged large-scale hunting, and the total population certainly numbers well less than 500 individuals. Decline is expected to continue based on ongoing hunting and unpredictable arrival of large hunting parties with high destructive potential from the Gulf states. The Dama Gazelle is following the same trail into extinction in the wild as the Scimitar-horned Oryx.
|Previously published Red List assessments:||
|Range Description:||Formerly widespread in the Sahara and Sahel zones, but their range and numbers have been extremely reduced. In North Africa, Dama Gazelle are now probably extinct, although they may survive in the Drâa (where observations were made by nomads in 1993) (Cuzin 1996; Aulagnier et al. 2001). It is also possible, though increasingly unlikely, that they may survive in very small numbers along the border between southern Morocco and Mauritania (Cuzin et al. in press). They may also survive in the Tassili de Tin Rehror in southern Algeria (K. De Smet pers. comm.). In Tunisia, they are believed to have occurred in the south and to have disappeared before the 20th century (Smith et al. 2001).
South of the Sahara, Dama Gazelle are still present in eastern Mali, Air and Termit/Tin Toumma in Niger, and in the Chadian Manga and Ouadi Rimé Ouadi Achim Nature Reserve in Chad (Scholte in press, and references therein); however, aerial and ground surveys of Termit-Tin Toumma in 2007 failed to record any Dama Gazelles (Wacher et al. 2007). They are now thought to be extinct in Mauritania, and are probably extinct in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Libya (see Scholte in press for summary, and references therein). There are no recent confirmed records from the Sudan, although East (1999) mentioned it could still occur at low densities in Northern Darfur and Northern Kordofan.
Native:Chad; Mali; Niger
Regionally extinct:Libya; Mauritania; Morocco; Nigeria; Tunisia
|Range Map:||Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.|
|Population:||Numbers of Dama Gazelle have declined drastically since the 1950s and 1960s. The early 1970s population in the Ouadi Rime - Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve in Chad, one of the former strongholds of the species, was estimated at 10,000-12,000 individuals, but today the species is very rare in this reserve (J. Newby, in Scholte in press). Known remnant populations are all very small and extremely fragmented; the only known populations of any size are in Manga (Chad), eastern Air (Niger), and the Mali/Niger border area. In all areas surveyed, numbers have been very low and the size of observed gazelle groups very small (range=1-5 individuals) (Lamarque et al. 2007). Subpopulations probably number around 20 individuals in all cases, are separated by hundreds of kilometers, and the total current wild population is certainly less than 500 individuals (J. Newby pers. comm.).|
|Current Population Trend:||Decreasing|
|Habitat and Ecology:||Inhabits Sahelian grasslands, sparsely wooded savanna and sub-desert steppes with Acacia and Panicum vegetation; usually avoids really sandy areas, but will frequent low mountains and mountain plateaus, probably as refugia. In southern Morocco, it was found in areas without any Acacia, but with dense shrub cover (Cuzin 2003).|
|Major Threat(s):||The main threats to this species include uncontrolled hunting (by nomads, military and by Arab hunting parties), and habitat loss and degradation due to overgrazing by domestic livestock (and the impact of expanded livestock rearing due to well construction in preferred habitats). Prolonged drought is also having an impact on pasture quality (Lafontaine et al. 2005; Scholte in press).|
Listed on CMS Appendix I, and included in the CMS Sahelo-Saharan Antelopes Action Plan (Lafontaine et al. 2005). It is listed on CITES Appendix I.
The Réserve partielle de faune du Bahr-el-Ghazal (Chad), west of the present Ouadi Rimé Ouadi Achim N.R., and the Aïr-Ténéré N.P., harbour the remaining viable Dama Gazelle populations. Both reserves have suffered from military unrest resulting in the collapse of conservation infrastructure (Scholte in press; K. de Smet pers. comm. 2007).
Dama Gazelle are present in captivity, but the number of founders is limited (Sausman 1998; Thuesen 1998). Animals from Almeria breeding facility in Spain were introduced to an enclosure (R'mila Royal Reserve) in Morocco (130 present in 2007; Cuzin et al. in press) and gazelles from München Zoo (originally bred at Almeria) were released into an enclosure in Souss-Massa N.P. (12 animals in 2006); these semi-captives are intended to form part of a reintroduction programme in Morocco. All of the animals from Almeria stock originate from Western Sahara. Elsewhere, Dama Gazelle were released into the 2,000-ha Bou-Hedma N.P. in Tunisia in the early 1990s (Abaigar et al. 1997) where around 17 were present in 2006 (T. Wacher pers. comm.); gazelles have also been reintroduced to Guembeul Faunal Reserve in Senegal (Cano et al. 1993) and a reintroduction programme in Ferlo North Reserve is underway (7 animals).
|Citation:||Newby, J., Wacher, T., Lamarque, F., Cuzin, F. & de Smet, K. 2008. Nanger dama. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T8968A12941085. . Downloaded on 31 May 2016.|