Taxonomic status of the Farasan Island gazelle |
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| Authors: | C R Thouless and K Al Bassri |
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| Institution: | King Khalid Wildlife Research Centre, c/o Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London NW1 4RY;King Khalid Wildlife Research Centre, c/o National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development, PO Box 61681, Riyadh 11575, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia |
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| Abstract: | The taxonomy of Arabian gazelles has been confused by single specimen collected from the Farasan Islands in the Red Sea in the 1820s. There is still population of gazelles on the islands. They form distinct taxon most closely related to the mountain gazelle Gazella gaiella , which is characterized by small size, grey-brown colouring, very short horns in the female and rounded upper tooth-row in the male. This gazelle bears no resemblance to the type specimen of G. arabica , said to come from the Farasan Islands. In this paper the Farasan gazelle is described as Gazella gazella Jarasani n. ssp. |
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