Mongolian Gazelle

Fascinating facts about the Mongolian Gazelle

• Mongolian gazelles roam a staggering 746,281 km² of Central Asian steppe, with 91% of that expanse, 681,863 km², lying inside Mongolia alone. Only 5% (34,718 km²) is in China and 4% (29,700 km²) in Russia. This massive, trans-national footprint means any single country's policies can ripple across the whole species, making coordinated cross-border conservation essential for preserving their habitat continuity.
• In summer herds typically number 20-30 animals, swelling to about 100 in winter, yet groups as large as 5,000 are not unusual. In 2007 observers recorded a mega-herd of a quarter of a million gazelles gathering on the steppes, one of the world's last great wilderness spectacles.
• Despite being one of the world's most numerous large mammals, the Mongolian gazelle faces intense hunting pressure: roughly 100,000 individuals are killed each year out of an estimated total of 1.5 million. This harvest rate, combined with disease-driven fluctuations, makes it difficult to gauge whether the species is truly stable.
• Mongolian gazelles are built for speed and agility, sprinting up to 60-65 km/h,. They can also leap as high as 2 m and cover distances of 4-6 m in a single bound. These athletic feats.
• Females carry a single fawn for 5-6 months, giving birth in June or July to a newborn weighing about 3 kg that can keep up with its mother after only a few days. Young gazelles reach sexual maturity at 17-18 months.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia
• Animal Diversity Web

At a glance

About the Mongolian Gazelle

Across the vast, windswept steppes of Mongolia, the gazelle moves with a quiet elegance, its large, dark eyes ever-vigilant as it navigates the endless expanse of grasses and wildflowers. With each stride, its slender legs devour the distance, carrying it effortlessly across the landscape in a gentle, loping gait that belies its remarkable speed and agility. As it runs, the gazelle's pale coat seems to shimmer and glow in the bright, high-altitude light, a fleeting glimpse of beauty in this harsh yet breathtakingly beautiful world.

More mammals to discover

Browse Feravox