Red Gazelle Gazella rufina. Original artwork from A Gap in Nature.

2000.
Acrylic on canvas, 1600 x 1250mm, framed, signed and dated by artist.

Last Record: before 1894. Distribution: Northern Algeria, Africa,

The gazelles are abundant and widespread creatures, occurring from Africa to China. There are sixteen species, only one of which has become extinct in recent times. The classification of some gazelles is still being determined, and a second form called Gazella arabica, which is of uncertain taxonomic status, is also known only from century-old specimens.
The red gazelle is identified from just three specimens, which were purchased in markets in Algiers and Oran, northern Algeria, during the late nineteenth century. They are held in museums in Paris and London, the last specimen being collected a few years before 1894 by E. Loder in Algiers.
As the living animal was never observed by a naturalist, nothing is known of its habits or ecology. It is thought, on the basis of the rich colouration of its coat, that it did not inhabit desert areas. Its distribution must have been limited, perhaps to the better watered mountain areas of North Africa, for it to succumb at such an early date.