When I was a lad (ok, mid/late 1970s) there were Arabian Gazelle at quite a few UK collections notably Chester and Dudley. Am I right in thinking that only Blackpool now holds the species? What happened? [I know the species had a reputation for being a bit fragile - I seem to recall Chester held theirs at their quarantine facility at one stage]
What happened was a very high mortality rate of young animals being born,as a result the deaths were far greater than the surviving numbers of young,animals to replace the older animals when they died! Blackpool now only have the 1 female who was the last born in the UK!
Marwell got its first Arabian Gazelle from Chester in 1978,the group grew at at one time there were about 20 animals,the last 4 left Marwell in 2002.
I rather thought that was the story. A shame. Pretty beasts. At one time Chester used them as a logo.
Is that it - one female in the whole country? Wow. I knew the species didn't prosper in this country but between the various collections (Blackpool, Chester, Marwell, London; might have been others) that maintained the species deaths were usually offset by births. Really the end result is that the UK is probably too wet for most gazelle species.
