The Species

The spiralled, fairly straight horns are present in both sexes, and may reach 39.6 cm in length in males (mean: 32.54; N=15; range: 22.5‐39.6) and 29.0 cm in females (mean: 25.49; N=14; range: 20.8‐29.0).

Species with an overall dark brown coat (back, head and legs), contrasting with its white belly and rump patch. The face has the clear striping typical of gazelles.

horns

DIMORPhism

description

Medium sized gazelle sexually dimorphic in body size

Female: 21-32 Kg
Male: 24.5-40 Kg

Cuvier’s gazelle occurs in a wide variety of habitats in hilly terrain, including open oak forests; Aleppo pine forests; open country with a mixture of wheat fields, vineyards and hill‐top grasslands; and stony desert plateaus (see Beudels et al. 2005 and references therein).

It is a browser and grazer, feeding on herbs and shrubs, living in widely spaced territories. It ranges from 60 m to 2600 metres above sea level (Cuzin 2003). It is found in areas with rainfall ranging from 600 mm/year to desert on the northern fringes of the Sahara.

G. cuvieri lives in small groups which typically contain fewer than eight animals (Kingdon 1997). It is a polygynous species, where harems are quite frequent, with one adult male and a few adult females, accompanied by their recent young (Sellami & Bouredjli 1991; Kingdon 1997).

HABITAT

Current and historic distribution in Tunisia

Cuvier’s gazelle is an endemic North African species which historically occupied the mountain ranges and hills of the Maghreb, and neighbouring ranges in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

In Tunisia Cuvier’s Gazelle occupied the entire Dorsale and the pre‐Saharan massifs.

But the species no longer survived in the 1970’s except in the vicinity of the Djebel Chambi and Khchem El Kelb between Kasserine and the Algerian border (Kacem et al., 1994); in Dghoumes National Park east of Tozeur, it survived until 1992 (Beudels et al. 2005).

In addition to the oral tradition, there are many written testimonies revealing the presence of the species in the country up to the first half of XXth century.

Click here if you want to see old cites
In addition to the oral tradition, there are many written testimonies revealing the presence of Cuvier’s Gazelle in Tunisia up to the first half of XXth century. Below is a partial list that mentions this Gazelle in Tunisia:
Bryden
1899
Whitaker
Lydekker
1897
1908
I have met with the Edmi, and obtained specimens of it, on some of the higher ranges near Kasrin, in Central Tunis, and have found it in the south near Gafsa and Tamerza. In the north of the Regency it seems to occur on the mountains near Zaghouan, the extreme eastern range of the Atlas, and in the neighbourhood of Ghardimaou, on the Algerio‐Tunisian frontier, from both of which places M. Blanc, the naturalist in Tunis, tells me he has received specimens in the flesh. I myself have also been offered Edmi‐shooting on an estate only some twenty miles or so south of Tunis. It seems evident, therefore, that the species has 10 a wide range in the Regency, although perhaps it is nowhere very abundant
Although its range includes a portion of the country coming within the distributional area of the dorcas, namely Morocco, Algeria and western Tunisia, the edmi is never found in association with the latter.
This is emphatically a mountain animal, and is found in Morocco, Algeria and Western Tunis….The present writer once obtained a live specimen from the cork‐forested mountains, 6000 to 7000 feet in height, on the borders of the Tunis and Algeria.
Lavauden
1920
Monchicourt
1918
La gazelle de montagne ou corinne rencontrée jadis par Bruce entre Haïdra et Tébessa et dont la présence a échappée à Lataste, compte plus d’individus et son extension est plus grande. En Algérie, cette espèce n’a guère été signalée que sur les reliefs de la bordure saharienne. En Tunisie, elle existe en plein Tell et même en Friguia. Ces dernières années on a vu des adem dans la forêt de Gafour, près de Sidi‐Ayed et dans le Djebel‐Harraba, à l’Ouenza, dans la forêt de la Kessera, au Djebel‐Serj et dans la chaîne des Byzacène. La corinne est sans doute en voie de diminution. Néanmoins, sa disparition du Slata et du Bargou où elle aurait vécu autrefois n’est pas un argument sans réplique. Car ces animaux sont d’humeurs voyageuses et émigrent temporairement devant l’incendie ou les coups de mine. Il y en a quelques années‐ uns en permanence au Zaghouan. Sur le Djebel‐Semmama et le Chambi on remarque quelques mouflons, mais le domaine de ceux‐ci est la steppe montagneuse.
Elle habite les montagnes du Sud et du Centre : Djebel‐sidi‐Aïch, Djebel‐chambi, Djebel‐Selloum, et remonte vers le Nord jusqu’au Zaghouan. Elle vit par petits troupeaux isolés, composés de 3 à 4 individus….
1924
Heim de Balsac
Le Djebel Bou‐Hedma renferme la faune caractéristique des montagnes du Sud. Les grands mammifères sont représentés par la Gazelle de montagne (Gazella cuvieri Ogilby) qui est devenue, hélas, une véritable rareté
1930
Dr. Otto Koller
The Edmi is to be found either in small herds or singly, and occasionally, though not as a rule, at a considerable elevation. On the Djebel Selloum and Djebel Semama, near Kasrin, both of which mountains are nearly 4000 feet above sea‐ level, I found the Gazelles about halfway up.
Joleaud
1929
Dr. Otto Koller (Wien) wrote about a collection of animals brought by Alfred Weidholz, in 1912. 11 16. Gazella cuvieri Ogilby. (Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, Bd. 44, 1930 pp : 1‐4). Fünf Felle und fünfzehn Gehörne aus Tunis. (Five pelts and the horns of about fifteens from Tunis.)
aujourd’hui G/ Cuvieri, qui vit par petites familles de quatre ou cinq individus et non en grandes hardes se déplaçant en masse, comme G. dorcas Cabrerai, se trouve surtout dans les régions montagneuses de la Berbérie méridionale :….sud Tunisien (région de Tamerza et de Gafsa jusqu’à la chaine de Tebaga, au Sud des chottes). En Tunisie, l’aire de G. Cuvieri s’étend d’une façon presque continue du Sud au Nord, grâce au développement de tout un système de petites chaînons calcaires qui étendent la zone de dispersion de la gazelle des montagnes jusqu’à Ghardimaou (massif de Ourgha), Teboursouk (djebel Ech Chehid) et Tunis (djebels Bou Kournin et Zaghouan).
1935
Marius Blanc (Faune tunisienne)
wrote in the paragraph dedicated to that species : « La gazelle de Montagne Gazella Cuvieri »…

… Cette grande gazelle se rencontre encore sur les grandes montagnes et sur les coteaux déserts des collines au sud et au centre de la Régence ; depuis quelques années elle semble diminuer car on ne m’en apporte plus que rarement…. Je l’ai reçu de Gafour, le Kef, de Thala, Téboursouk, d’El‐Aouane près de Kairouan, de Thélepte, de Kasserine, de Hadjeb‐El‐Aïoun, de Bou‐Chabka, etc. tuées naturellement à quelques kilomètres de ces différents centres. On l’a tuée il y a cinq ou six ans derrière les montagnes du Djebel‐Reças et une de celles du Haut‐ Mornag.

1994
Bel haj Kacem
En 1936, cette gazelle était encore abondante dans toute la Dorsale tunisienne, de la frontière algérienne jusqu’au Djebel Bou Kornine à 17 Km au Sud de Tunis

Extinction causes & conservation measures

Despite the lack of writings that specifically addresses the causes of the decline of Cuvier’s Gazelle in Tunisia and the alarming reduction of its range along XXth century, there are a number of factors that can be pointed out as relevant in explaining the specie decline.. However, important conservation measures have been taken by the Tunisian authorities

The personal use of texts and information contained in these pages is allowed. However, permission of the CSIC is required for publication in any form or for use, distribution or inclusion in other contexts accessible to third parties.

NAVIGATE

cOntact

You can send any comment or question about the gazella cuvier's reintroduction project in Tunisia to the following email emoreno@eeza.csic.es or in the following contact direction:

Estación Experimental de Zonas Aridas

Ctra. de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120, Almería (Spain)

Tel: (+34) 950951120

Tel: (+34) 950281045