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

Abstract

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.

Spatiotemporal Mechanisms of the Coexistence of Reintroduced Scimitar-Horned Oryx and Native Dorcas Gazelle in Sidi Toui National Park, Tunisia

“…However, their annual and seasonal spatial niches have a low degree of overlap, indicating that the two species have niche separation under specific habitat conditions, which could be one of the mechanisms for oryx and gazelle to achieve a long-term, stable coexistence in STNP. Our findings are similar to the spatial and temporal patterns reported for oryx and gazelle at Dghoumes National Park in Tunisia [88,89].…”

Assessing landscape suitability and connectivity for effective conservation of two semi‐desert ungulates in Iran

“…Conservation of the ungulates is vital not only to protect these species due to climate change and mentioned threats in the desert environment, but because the species has a large impact in desert environments on the development and maintenance of other plants and animals (Kaky et al, 2023). Understanding the ungulates distribution and connectivity is important in order to mitigate their decline and effective strategies for effective conservation and management of these species (Meliane et al, 2023). Iran has a vital role in the conservation of threatened wild ungulates in western Asia (Malakoutikhah et al, 2020).…”