Class: MAMMALIA

Order: ARTIODACTYLA

Family: BOVIDAE

Genus: GAZELLA, NANGER, EUDORCAS

This group of genera with small antelope contains 19 recognised species, ranging in size from the Speke's Gazelle, which stands at just half a metre tall at the shoulder, to the Dama Gazelle, which stands 120 centimetres. The range of the gazelle, whilst mainly from North to Central Africa, also stretches into Asia as far as Mongolia. The genera Eudorcas and Nanger, the latter containing the largest of the gazelles, were once classified under Gazella, though although they are now considered different genera from Gazella, the antelopes are still dubbed as gazelles, and share many qualities characteristic to Gazella. The animals of all three genera all show striking similarities to each other - in the case of Gazella, a dark stripe bordering a white belly is obvious. Said stripe is darker on the gazelles of Eudorcas, but is almost absent from the bodies of the Nanger gazelles - supporting the idea that they all share an ancestor in an 'original gazelle', which shared some of the same characteristics. The gerenuk is sometimes called the 'giraffe gazelle', though it is only somewhat related to the three gazelle genera.