ISRAEL JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY, Vol. 43, 1997, pp. 209-215

NOTE: A NEW SUBSPECIES OF GAZELLA GAZELLA FROM THE SOUTHERN NEGEV

H. MENDELSSOHN,' C.P. GROVES,b AND B. SHALMON" "Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel hDepartment of Prehistory and Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 260I, Australia

At present, two species of gazelle occur in Israel: Gazella dorcas and Gazella gazella. The former is the common arid-zone species of the Sahara; the form occurring in Israel is the Sudanese G. d. isabella (Mendelssohn, 1974). The larger G. gazella is confined to the Middle East, where three subspecies are recognized (Groves and Harrison, 1977; Groves, 1983): G. g. gazella, the mountain gazelle, in central and northern Israel and adjacent parts of Lebanon and Syria; G. g. cora, the common Arabian gazelle, in the Arabian peninsula; and G. g. muscatensis, the Muscat gazelle, restricted to the Gulf Coast of Oman. The second of these, the most widespread of the three, has traditionally been known as G. g. arabica, but Groves (1973) has shown that the name arabica should only be employed for the distinct gazelle of the Farasan Islands (Saudia Arabia) in the Red Sea (see Thouless and Al Bassri, 1991). A population of G. gazella living in southern Israel in the Arava depression, the Rift Valley that extends between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba, is different from any described subspecies (Mendelssohn, 1974), especially as far as skull characters are concerned. Considering its extreme rarity, we feel it appropriate to describe it as a new subspecies. In the following, we compare the newly described subspecies to its neighbors, G. g. gazella to the north and G. g. cora to the southeast.

Gazella gazella acaciae subsp. nov.

DIAGNOSIS A subspecies of Gazella gazella differing from other known subspecies by its shorter horns in the male; narrower skull; elongated nasals which are very narrow, especially anteriorly; elongated distal limb segments; long neck; long and broad ears; long bushy

Accepted January 1997. 210 H. MENDELSSOHN, C.P. GROVES, AND B. SHALMON Isr. J. Zoo!. tail; relatively long premolars; and dark, earth-brown color, with extremely broad conspicuous black nose-spot and white stripe on inner surface of hind leg reaching beyond hock as far as hoof. It differs additionally from G. g. gazella by longer and broader bullae tympanicae; wider-spread horns in the male that taper towards the tips and on which the rings are lacking on the thin, distal part; premaxillae that reach nasals and contact them for 5-12 mm; very slender build with long legs; long and broad ears that are held slanting sideways; darker color, with back and flank stripes especially dark, forehead and dorsum nasi lighter; and more conspicuous facial markings, the dark face­ stripe very dark and the light face-stripe almost white. It differs additionally from G. g. cora by its larger size; less in-turned hom tips in the male; less elongated hind limbs; browner color; and darker (black) pygal stripe.

DISTRIBUTION Known now only from a 6-km2 region with dense Acacia raddiana and A. tortilis stands in the southern Negev near Yotvata, Israel. Presumably it occurs or occurred also on the Jordanian side of the border. It was formerly more widespread in suitable habitats along the Arava depression.

HOLOTYPE Tel Aviv University Zoology Museum no. 6585; skin, skull, and skeleton of an adult male. The animal was caught as a fawn in spring 1966, near Yotvata, southern Israel, and transferred to Tel Aviv University on 4.11.1969 when 3 years old; it died on 4.5.1975.

PARA TYPES Two pick-up crania (Tel Aviv University Zoology Museum no. 7304, collected by D. Baharav in 1978, near Yotvata, and no. 4930 near Elat), damaged and somewhat incomplete, especially 7304; two additional specimens, two 2-year-old males from a captive stock, nos. 7842 and 7751.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL An adult male skull has recently been added to the collection (no. 8480). Its charac­ ters and measurements fall within the range ascribed to the new subspecies.

ETYMOLOGY For the Acacia tree, to which the distribution of the new subspecies appears to be closely related.

DESCRIPTION The skin of the holotype is a dark, earth-brown to grey-sandy color, with the typical characters of the species: a very conspicuous pale stripe along the flanks, bordered below by a dark stripe which separates the lighter flanks from the white of the underside; sharply and noticeably paler haunches and limbs; a dark pygal stripe (blacker in this and other specimens than in G. g. cora); the white color of the rump reaches higher up on