Eudorcas rufina Thomas, 1894

Red gazelle, Algerian gazelle, Rufous gazelle

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Gazella rufina Thomas, 1894

Conservation Status

Invalid (synonym)

Last record: 1800's (IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group, 2008); pre-1894 (Gippoliti et al., 2017); 1936 (Goodwin & Goodwin, 1973; Fisher & Blomberg, 2012; Lee et al., 2017)

IUCN RedList status: Data Deficient

Eudorcas rufina is an enigmatic species known only from 3 specimens bought in markets in Algiers sometime during the 19th century. However, one of the specimens has recently been identified as Gazella rufifrons (IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group, 2008), and the other two specimens may be individuals of G. rufifrons as well, or another species. Apparently no females of this species were ever observed (Lavauden, 1930).

Distribution

Atlas Mountains, Algeria & Morocco?

The exact wild distribution of this species was unknown, as the known specimens were purchased from markets.

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

The three specimens are currently in Museums in London and Paris. As this species was only rarely acquired by fur traders (furriers), it was a costly pelt and hence many are likely to have survived given the costs associated with purchasing an example.

Media

References

Anonymous. (1964). A preliminary list of rare mammals including those believed to be rare but concerning which detailed information is still lacking. IUCN Bulletin 11(Special Supplement): 4 pp.

Day, David. (1981). The Doomsday Book of Animals: A Natural History of Vanished Species. New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press.

Fisher, Diana O. and Blomberg, Simon P. (2012). Inferring Extinction of Mammals from Sighting Records, Threats, and Biological Traits. Conservation Biology 26(1): 57-67. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01797.x

Gentry, A. W. (1964). Skull characters of African gazelles. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 13(7): 353-382.

Gippoliti, Spartaco, Cotterill, Fenton P. D., Zinner, Dietmar and Groves, Colin P. (2017). Impacts of taxonomic inertia for the conservation of African ungulate diversity:an overview. Biological Reviews. doi: 10.1111/brv.12335

Goodwin, Harry A. and Goodwin, J. M. (1973). List of mammals which have become extinct or are possibly extinct since 1600. Int. Union Conserv. Nat. Occas. Pap. 8: 1-20.

Harper, Francis. (1945). Extinct and vanishing mammals of the Old World. New York, USA: American Committee for International Wild Life Protection.

Heim de Balsac, H. (1936). Biogéographie des mammifères et des oiseaux de l’Afrique du Nord. Bulletin Biologique France-Belgique. Supplément 21: 1-447.

IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group. (2008). Eudorcas rufina. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 02 July 2011.

Jones, K.E. et al. (2009). PanTHERIA: A species-level database of life-history, ecology and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals. Ecology 90: 2648.

Lavauden, L. (1930). Notes de mammalogie nord-Africaine. La gazelle rouge. Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France 55:327–332.

Lee, T. E., Fisher, D. O., Blomberg, S. P. and Wintle, B. A. (2017). Extinct or still out there? Disentangling influences on extinction and rediscovery helps to clarify the fate of species on the edge. Global Change Biology 23(2): 621-634. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13421

de Smet, K. and Smith, T. R. (2001). Algeria (pp. 22-29). In: Mallon, D.P. and Kingswood, S.C. (compilers). (2001). Antelopes. Part 4: North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Global Survey and Regional Action Plans. SSC Antelope Specialist Group.IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.viii + 260pp.

Turvey, Samuel T. (2009). Holocene mammal extinctions, pp. 41-61. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.

Turvey, Samuel T. and Fritz, Susanne A. (2011). The ghosts of mammals past: biological and geographical patterns of global mammalian extinction across the Holocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366(1577): 2564-2576. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0020 [Supplementary Information]

Wilson, D.E. & Reeder, D.M. 2005 Mammal species of the world: a taxonomic and geographic reference. Third edition. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.

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