A gazelle of the Middle East’s hills and plains. The Jerusalem Zoo account describes it as active by day and feeding on grass and leaves.
For Israeli populations, the account describes a gray-brown coat, white belly and short black tail. Males are larger than females and have longer, thicker horns.
Researchers compared the diets of Mountain Gazelles and cattle in two Israeli nature reserves by examining plant DNA in their droppings. The samples were collected in 2019 and 2020. Across the reserves, the two species’ diets overlapped little overall, and the plants detected in their diets varied with place and season.
The greatest overlap was observed in winter grassland at Yehudiya Nature Reserve. The reported Bray–Curtis similarity was 0.21 in winter, compared with 0.08 in both summer and autumn. Comparing seasons separately revealed variation that an overall average could hide.
IUCN Red List · Endangered · Global
The 2017 global IUCN assessment lists the Mountain Gazelle as Endangered (EN). It was assessed on 2016-08-01.