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The oldest mhorr gazelle in the world October 8, 2019

Evita is not only the oldest mhorr gazelle we have, but also the oldest mhorr gazelle in the world. By the way, this graceful ungulate is extinct in the wild, and exists only in zoos.

Animals in zoos usually live much longer than their wildlife counterparts. This is because, in the wild, animals are exposed to many dangers and almost every day of their lives is spent in the struggle for existence and survival. And many are left behind in this struggle. Inhabitants of modern zoos, on the other hand, have a much easier life; no fighting for food, drinking water, a hiding place, escape from predators: and even mating is not an issue for them any longer. As a result, extremely long lives are much more common in zoos. In the history of our Zoo, many animals are known to have lived to the age of a Methuselah, and we still have animals of quite a prestigious age.

They include Evita, the mhorr gazelle, born on April 27 2001 at the Berlin Zoo, who was 18 years old this April. This makes it not only the eldest of the six mhorr gazelles that live with us, but also one of the oldest mhorr gazelles currently living anywhere in the world. Of course, the exact date of birth is only known in the case of zoo animals, and the age of wild animals can be an estimate, even in the best case scenario, unless the specimen is included in a field monitoring programme. However, it is to be known about mhorr gazelles that these graceful ungulates have become completely extinct in the wild, so today only zoo specimens exist. So it's not an exaggeration to say that Evita is the oldest mhorr gazelle in the world.

At more than 18 years old, Evita, by the way, is not too far from the absolute record for mhorr gazelles. The oldest such gazelle ever, a female called Separada, died at 19 years and four months old. In contrast, wild specimens, when they were still in existence, hardly lived longer than 10 to 12 years.

The mhorr gazelle (Gazella dama mhorr) is actually a subspecies of the dama gazelle (Gazella dama) that was originally native to Northwest Africa. The last wild specimens were observed in the 1960s and '70s. Such gazelles were also rarely kept in zoos, and the fact that they were able to save the mhorr gazelle at the time of their extinction in the wild was primarily thanks to the excellent Spanish biologist and environmentalist, José Antonio Valverde (1926-2003).

Professor Valverde was a renowned researcher on desert wildlife, including Sahara antelopes and gazelles, and worked extensively in the former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara). In 1971, he was one of the founders of the Parque de Rescate de la Fauna Sahariana, located near Almería in Andalusia, which was created to save the Sahara's wildlife.

Between 1971 and 1975, a total of 11 mhorr gazelles, two males and nine females, were transported to Almeria from the Spanish Sahara, the founders of today's zoo population, meaning that every mhorr gazelle that lives today is their descendant. The small number of founders was not ideal from a genetic point of view, nor were they wild-caught specimens, but animals kept here and there in Spanish territory, which, according to some recollections, can be traced back to an even smaller starting stock of only a few individuals caught in 1958. In the early years of the 70s these were the only specimens available.

The planned breeding of the population therefore began at the initiative of Professor Valverde in Almeria. However, the internationalisation of the programme was only possible as a result of political changes in Spain after 1975, the transition from dictatorship to constitutional monarchy. Subsequently, several European and American zoos joined the initiative. For example, the first animals from Almeria arrived at the Munich Zoo in 1982. Meanwhile, the European Zoo and Aquarium Association (EAZA) and the North American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) launched their own breeding programmes for mhorr gazelles. (Such programmes are known in Europe as EEP, in America as SSP.) More than ten years ago, one South African, eleven North American and nine European zoos were engaged in the breeding of mhorr gazelles, and by now the number of participating institutions has grown further. Currently, about two dozen EAZA members alone are participating in the programme, including the Budapest Zoo.

We joined the mhorr gazelle breeding programme in 2008; this was when Evita arrived. Her ancestors include animals born in Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt, but the ancestors upwards from the great-grandparents were residents of the said Andalusian breeding centre, Almería. Her even earlier ancestors all came from the former Spanish Sahara. Evita lived up to expectations, not only because of her long life, but also because she rejoiced us several times with her offspring.

By the way, the first mhorr gazelle, born in Budapest, came to this world on April 6, 2009. The newcomer turned out to be a female and later became a resident of Montpellier Zoo in France. The baby gazelle was followed in the subsequent years by several more, which then moved to other zoos, in Austria, Italy and even Spain.