A gazelle of deserts and dry grassland that feeds on a variety of plants.
The belly is white, while body color and the strength of flank stripes vary by region. Females have smaller, straighter horns than males.
In Sidi Toui National Park in southeastern Tunisia, Dorcas gazelles live in the same landscape as reintroduced scimitar-horned oryx. From December 2020 to November 2022, researchers used 26 camera traps over 17,323 camera-trap days, recording 1,208 gazelle captures and 1,865 oryx captures. Their activity patterns overlapped strongly: both were most active around dawn and dusk and less active during the hot, dry season.
Their use of camera sites overlapped less, with seasonal spatial-overlap scores ranging from 0.31 to 0.57. Different environmental conditions shaped where each species was recorded, suggesting that using different places may help them coexist. Activity increased for both after spring rains, when new vegetation emerged.
IUCN Red List (as listed by the Mammal Diversity Database) · Vulnerable (VU) · Global
The Mammal Diversity Database lists the Dorcas gazelle as Vulnerable (VU) in the global IUCN assessment, and the species has been on Appendix I of the Convention on Migratory Species since 1979. An estimate cited in the CMS Sahelo-Saharan Megafauna Action Plan places 7,700–18,000 gazelles in a central 3,500 km² survey zone of Chad’s Ouadi Rimé–Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve. The plan identifies motorized hunting, drought, agricultural expansion, habitat loss and degradation, and overgrazing by sheep and goats as threats. It proposes population counts, anti-poaching patrols, local participation in surveillance, and continued monitoring.