{"id":3271,"date":"2020-09-10T07:47:01","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T07:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/?p=3271"},"modified":"2020-09-10T07:50:22","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T07:50:22","slug":"israeli-scientists-want-to-shed-light-on-the-life-of-the-endangered-mountain-gazelle-through-its-nutrition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/en\/health-nutrition\/israeli-scientists-want-to-shed-light-on-the-life-of-the-endangered-mountain-gazelle-through-its-nutrition\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s the Gazelle eating?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gazelles in Israel\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NrlzKqYbRFo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>During the last three decades, Israel\u2019s gazelle populations have been shrinking dramatically, mainly due to habitat fragmentation caused by human development. Unfortunately, that is not the only critical factor that makes it increasingly difficult for gazelles to survive in the wild. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Aside from habitat fragmentation, there are other reasons why\nIsraeli gazelle populations are on the decline,&#8221; explains Dr. Guy Dovrat,\na researcher at the Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, and\nhead of the study, which is conducted in collaboration with Keren Kayemet\nLeYisrael &#8211; the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are\nvarious diseases the animals can easily contract from livestock, such as the\nfoot-and-mouth disease. In addition, wild dogs and more recently wolfs,\nprimarily in the north of Israel, prey on the young gazelles, which makes it\nhard for the populations to develop and become stable.\u201d According to Dovrat,\npoaching is another threat the gazelles are facing all over the country,\nparticularly in the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Israel is\nhome to three different gazelle species; the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teva.org.il\/?CategoryID=949&amp;ArticleID=4911\">Mountain Gazelle<\/a>, which can be found in the north\nand the center of the country; the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teva.org.il\/?CategoryID=949&amp;ArticleID=4944\">Dorcas Gazelle<\/a>, native to the Negev desert; and\nthe critically endangered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teva.org.il\/?CategoryID=949&amp;ArticleID=4912\">Acacia Gazelle<\/a>, which can be found in vanishingly\nsmall numbers only in the Arava Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Most of Israel&#8217;s gazelle populations are very small and fragmented, some of which can be found in the Jerusalem area or the coastal plain. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that these scattered populations will persist in the future as they are too small, and the environmental conditions are too unfavorable. However, there are stable populations in some of the planted forests of JNF-KKL,&#8221; says Dovrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"722\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161222Station_08_393-1024x722.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3274\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161222Station_08_393-1024x722.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161222Station_08_393-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161222Station_08_393-768x542.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161222Station_08_393-1536x1083.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161222Station_08_393.jpg 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>The Mountain Gazelle, which can be found in the north and the center of the country. Photo by Amir Arnon, Ramat Hanadiv.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>What do\ngazelles eat in the forest?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dovrat explains that, although gazelles in Israel are not native to\nforest or woodland areas, the researchers have been observing ongoing gazelle\nactivity in the JNF-KKL forests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It\nappears that forest areas provide protection from different threats and a\nnetwork of ecological corridors that allow movement and spread,&#8221; says\nDovrat. &#8220;Our goal is to get a better picture of what the gazelles eat in\nthe forests as well as the quality of their food. This is important as these\npopulations rely partly on the forest&#8217;s understory for their nutrition,&#8221;\nhe continues. &#8220;We want to understand if the forests can support healthy\ngazelle populations,&#8221; he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the study is still in its early stages, one of the things the researchers came to understand about the gazelles in Israel is that they are browsers who specialize in eating leaves and different greenery. &#8220;We used to think that they are grazers who only eat grass and herbaceous vegetation. But their diet is depended on the seasonality of the Mediterranean climate. We don&#8217;t have green grass throughout the whole year, but we have a lot of shrubs and bushes that grow in the understory of the pine forests,&#8221; says Dovrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161221Station_18_1110-1024x707.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161221Station_18_1110-1024x707.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161221Station_18_1110-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161221Station_18_1110-768x530.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161221Station_18_1110-1536x1060.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gazelle_Scent_Station_Census_2016_20161221Station_18_1110.jpg 2034w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>&#8220;Our goal is to get a better picture of what the gazelles eat in the forests as well as the quality of their food.&#8221; Amir Arnon, Ramat Hanadiv.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>The\nsecret in the gazelle feces <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The\nmost interesting aspect of the research is that we are using NIRS technology\n(Near-infrared spectroscopy), which is a method that allows us to understand\nthe composition of the gazelle&#8217;s nutrition by examining their feces. That might\ngive us an insight into what the animals eat over the course of the year.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Dovrat, this aspect of the study is based on an important work of the researcher Amir Anon, who collected roadkill for one of his studies and analyzed the animals&#8217; stomach and colon contents with the help of the NIRS technology. &#8220;We use that as a starting point, and it allows us to gauge what kind of nutritional values we are looking for,&#8221; says Dovrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally,\nthe scientists are using surveillance cameras to track the gazelle&#8217;s movements.\nMale gazelles are marking their territory with feces, which helps the\nresearchers to detect their activity. Aside from using gazelle feces to\ndetermine the animal&#8217;s movements through the forests, Dovrat and his team are\ntrying to find out how gazelles might aid in seed dispersal, and therefore in\nthe preservation and development of the forest ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We\ngerminate gazelle feces in pots in the controlled environment of our laboratory\nto find out which plants are growing from the feces,&#8221; Dovrat explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It is\nnot the first time that scientists in Israel are analyzing the guts or the\nfeces of large herbivores to find out more about their dietary habits. However,\nthis is the first time we are using the animal\u2019s feces to get an overall\nnutrition index of a native species. Also, the fact that we are doing it\nwithout interfering in the animal&#8217;s environment or harming any individuals, as\nwe are only using roadkill for our examinations, is new,&#8221; he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Israel&#8217;s\ngazelle populations in a continuous decline, the researchers hope that their\nfindings will contribute to the conservation of this endangered species. As\nstated by Dovrat, not only may gazelles facilitate the dispersal of seeds, but\nthey might also be valuable for the health of the forests and the maintenance\nof ecological corridors by feeding on and shaping the forest understory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe hope that the conclusions of the study can be used in planning future plantings and in shaping existing forest areas, to improve the carrying capacity of the land for native species, with an emphasis on endangered species,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This ZAVIT article was also published in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ynetnews.com\/environment\/article\/rJid0zM4P\">Ynetnews<\/a>&nbsp;on 09\/06\/2020.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the last three decades, Israel\u2019s gazelle populations have been shrinking dramatically, mainly due to habitat fragmentation caused by human &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":3293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,10,9],"tags":[],"acf":[],"post-meta-fields":{"_edit_lock":["1599724913:11"],"_edit_last":["11"],"subtitle":["The Mountain Gazelle is a symbol of nature conservation in Israel, but its habitats are disappearing quickly, and its future is uncertain. Luckily, the country\u2019s forests seem to have given refuge to stable gazelle populations. For the first time, scientists are trying to understand how Israel\u2019s pine forests support these elusive herbivores"],"_subtitle":["field_59d3d36ea7fe1"],"_wpml_media_duplicate":["1"],"_wpml_media_featured":["1"],"_oembed_1cadd7d0374787e688e32e306cb06fa9":["<iframe title=\"Gazelles in Israel\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NrlzKqYbRFo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>"],"_oembed_time_1cadd7d0374787e688e32e306cb06fa9":["1599723890"],"_thumbnail_id":["3293"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3271"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3298,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions\/3298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}