Rüppell's fox (<i>V</i><i>ulpes rueppellii</i>) and its habitat in Jbil National Park, Tunisia

Meliane, Mohamed Khalil; Saidi, Amira; Boufaroua, Mohamed; Petretto, Marie; Riordan, Philip; Gilbert, Tania

doi:10.1111/aje.12868

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…The only tree species present was rtamm ( Retama raetam ), an arid adapted woody plant that grows up to 3 m tall and 6 m wide that occurs less frequently than other shrubs. Predators in Jbil NP included Rüppell's fox ( Vulpes rueppellii ), fennec fox ( Vulpes zerda ), and the more generalist African wolf ( Canis lupaster ), but it is possible that the area also supported red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ; Meliane et al 2021). Herbivores were restricted to small rodents, the Cape hare ( Lepus capensis ), dorcas gazelle, and slender‐horned gazelle.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal and spatial distribution of dorcas and slender‐horned gazelles in a Saharan habitat

et al. 2023

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Saharan ungulates have suffered from poaching across their range leading to population declines. Low abundance and habitat inaccessibility have limited the availability of empirical data on desert ungulate ecology in the wild. Our objective was to evaluate temporal and spatial distribution, and home-range sizes of wild dorcas gazelles (Gazella dorcas) and slenderhorned gazelles (Gazella leptoceros) under natural conditions using observations from 14,398 camera-days collected between April 2019 and October 2021 in the 7,700-ha fenced area of Jbil National Park (Jbil NP), Tunisia. We individually identified gazelles in Jbil NP using unique horn morphology.Both gazelle species exhibited nocturnal activity patterns in summer, but diurnal activity patterns dominated in winter. We also detected both species more frequently in the plains than in mountains. Water presence was influential in determining distribution only for dorcas gazelles. Minimum convex polygons (MCPs) were 2,062 ha for both the male and female of the most frequently detected dorcas gazelle pair and 1,527 ha for another solitary male. For slender-horned gazelles, MCPs were 2,280 ha and 2,041 ha, respectively, for a male and a female detected in Jbil NP. The decline and rarity of gazelles in the Sahara Desert have limited the sample size of our observed populations. Our study provides hitherto unknown data on wild populations of rapidly declining gazelle species and contributes to ongoing conservation efforts.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%