Gazelles

The beautiful and very shy Sand gazelle or locally known as the Reem gazelle is a magnificent animal, heavily built averaging 22 kg. It gets its name "Sand gazelle" from the animal's pale sandy-red colour, white in the belly flanks and hindquarters producing a superb camouflage against danger in its natural habitat. The males always have horns curving outwards like a lyre, while the females usually are hornless, although small slender horns may present.

Sand gazelles are found in the East and North of Arabian Peninsula including the islands of the kingdom of Bahrain. They travel in herds of fifty to a hundred individuals. If disturbed, they would run together, necks outstretched without leaping or bounding like other species of gazelles. They feed on variety of plants, which provide them with nutrition and water requirements also. The females give birth during late spring and early summer, a period following the spring rains to ensure enough vegetation to feed their young.

The main threats to Sand gazelle in the region include shrinkage of suitable habitats, over-grazing by camels and domestic goats and hunting. In the past their natural predators were the Arabian leopard and Arabian wolf which are now almost extinct in the wild.