Text & photos
Aleksandr Esipov and Elena Bykova

The order of cloven-hoofed animals: Artiodactyla
The family of hollow-horned ruminants: Bovidae
The majestic posture of this animal has never left anybody indifferent, poets compared its large deep black eyes to the eyes of oriental beauties.
Pertaining to the group of antelopes, the goitered gazelle has a slight and slender build – from the first sight one guesses a born runner. The body weight of males rarely exceeds 30 kg and the females weigh even less. Small and black heart-shaped horns stand in beauty on graciously reared head, while the females lack this decoration. Light, beige tints prevail in the animal’s color. A small black tail contrasts in the light background which gave its name in local dialects – a ”Black tail”.

Inhabiting sandy and clay deserts and semi-deserts, the goitered gazelle’s range in Asian countries extends from China to the Caspian Sea. Its range includes such countries as Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
In spite of its fitness to life in the desert, the goitered gazelles yet need watering places. First of all this applies to nursing females. During hot seasons, most animals are attached to watering places while they can drink not only sweet water, but quite salty water as well. Only adult males can go without water for quite a long time getting moisture from the plants the feed on.
One of the behavioral fitness of the goitered gazelles to the hot climate is that they are active in the dusk, in daytime they prefer having rest under the shade of bushes saving themselves from overheating.
The goitered gazelles are excellent runners, they can make up to 60 km per hour and higher.
It is not in their nature to form huge herds. In winter their herds may number several hundred animals. In other seasons, they disperse in smaller herds, or even every animal stays alone.
Unlike such migrating animals as saigas which can migrate in longitudinal directions to 1,000 km and more, the goitered gazelle live a more settled mode of existence moving to short distances seeking pastures in the desert.
The rut starts in October-November. At this time, the males mark their territories with excreta, guard females on their territories from intrusions of other males and start their fights with rivals. The males reproduce starting from the age of 2.5 years, while the younger animals are driven away by the adult males. During the rut, they are excited and not in mood for grazing. One stag usually has several females in its harem.
The females start reproducing when they reach the age of 1.5 years.  The offspring are born in May. Usually they come in twins, the females rarely give birth to singles or triplets. In the first 15 days, they lie on the ground, due to their mimicry color they are quite invisible. To avoid attracting enemies, the dams graze at a distance, carefully approaching their siblings for feeding.
At older age, the siblings follow their dams and gradually learn the plant feeds. Suckling stops in late autumn.
In case of a serious threat to heir siblings, the dams try to attract the attention of wolves, people to themselves and lead them away from their siblings. The dams protect their siblings from foxes and predatory birds using their own powers.
The wolf is the main enemy of the goitered gazelle. As to catch the goitered gazelle is not an easy task, the wolves are usually unable to destroy their population. However, winters sometimes may be deep-snowed and the wolves get a great advantage of this opportunity compared to its exhausted victim and use it to the full. In such years, the population of the goitered gazelle may  drop several times.
Until the 19th century, the goitered gazelle had been the victim to the Asian cheetah which has nowadays become a rare animal.

If the goitered gazelle has got adapted to its natural enemies during the long common evolution, but the neighborhood with the man who not only praised this fleet-footed beauty in legends and poetic works, and always wanted to taste its meat, turned dismal for the goitered gazelle. Experiencing extremely high hunting burden, the world population of the goitered gazelle has been steadily dropping and now it is entered in the International Red Data Book of rare and endangered animals.
The lifespan of the goitered gazelle in the wild reaches 7 years, and in captivity in lack of predators up to 9 years.
To carry out research, to preserve and to increase the population of the goitered gazelle in semi-captive conditions, 30 years ago a nursery was established for the goitered gazelle in the desert area near Bukhara which was transformed into “The Goitered Gazelle Ecocenter”
42 animals were released into its territory when the nursery was established. The population has gradually increased and now it reaches a thousand head. The Center specialists have studied the behavior and specific features of this animal in detail and think that they can replicate their experience gained during many years to other species as well which may be in critical situation.