New Dorcas gazelles are born at the Barcelona Zoo
So far this year, four new Dorcas gazelles have been born at the Barcelona Zoo. The babies are three males and one female that grow in good health with the rest of the group. The Dorcas gazelle, native to Western Sahara, was on the verge of extinction due to excessive hunting by the towns where it lives. Currently, thanks to existing conservation programs in which the Zoo participates, the species is in a vulnerable situation, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
In this context, the director of the Barcelona Zoo, Sito Alarcon, highlights that “the birth of four new Dorcas gazelles represents a new success for the conservation programs of this species and the effort made by the Zoo and other scientific institutions to protect and recover biodiversity in an area highly threatened by human pressure and the effects of climate change.”
Barcelona Zoo, ally in the reintroduction of the Dorcas gazelle
The Dorcas gazelle has always been highly persecuted by the nomadic populations of Western Sahara who fed on its meat. To prevent its extinction and that of other highly endangered Saharan species, in 1971 the Saharan Fauna Rescue Park was created in Almería.
Thanks to the work of this center, integrated into the Arid Zones Experimental Station of the Higher Scientific Research Council (CSIC), and the support of the Barcelona Zoo and other European zoos, in recent years, specimens of the Dorcas gazelle have been reintroduced in certain parks and reserves in North Africa. Between 2006 and 2009, about 30 were reintroduced to the Guembeul Nature Reserve, in Senegal; and since 2009, the Barcelona Zoo Foundation has been working, in collaboration with the CSIC, to protect the reintroduction area and monitor the released individuals with the aim of undertaking actions that allow, once again, the survival of this species in its natural habitats. .
The Zoo also provides financing and veterinary and pedagogical advice to Senegal, one of the countries where the species that lives in the deserts and steppes of North Africa, Arabia and the Middle East originates.
