The dama gazelle (Nanger dama) is one of the three most threatened antelope species.
Once distributed widely across the Sahelo-Saharan region, it is known to survive in only five small subpopulations in Mali, Chad and Niger and numbers in the wild are estimated to be fewer than 100-200.
Approximately 1500 animals exist in captivity worldwide (in zoos and on Texas ranches) which have been bred from around 24 founder individuals, collected from the wild in the second half of the twentieth century.
Since the 1980s dama gazelles have been released from captivity into fenced reserves in Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia with mixed success.
The species was historically split into three subspecies (N.d.mhorr, N.d.dama and N.d.ruficollis) due to variations in coat coloration that are present in successive regions across its range. Current captive management is conducted according to these subspecific delineations although there is some doubt about their validity.
A workshop was held at RZSS, Edinburgh, in November 2013 to review and discuss key issues for dama gazelle conservation and a second workshop was then held at Al Ain Zoo, Abu Dhabi in 2018 to develop the Dama gazelle Conservation Strategy .
This site contains the results of these workshops and is intended to act as a platform for future dama gazelle conservation issues . The document under "Conservation Review" contains the key outputs of the 2013 & 2018 workshops and outlines the next steps to be taken. The "Dama library" contains a list of useful references. If you would like to join the Dama Gazelle Network for updates on dama gazelle conservation please go to "Contact".
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