Rare six-legged gazelle is thriving and and likes ‘hosting the females’
The unusual animal has a rare genetic condition.
A gazelle with an extra pair of legs hasn’t let them stop him living his best life – and in fact they don’t seem to have got in the way at all.
The unusual animal was spotted in a nature reserve in western Israel, and confounded expectations when experts went to look.
Amir Balaban, who leads a team looking after nature in the valley, said it has ‘managed to lead an impressive life’ in the Nahal HaBsor reserve.
‘Contrary to expectation, the gazelle is healthy, strong, and has three female gazelles and a fawn from the previous fall,’ he said.
‘He has been seen hosting the females in the fields and the extra legs on his back pose no challenge to him.’
Even being born with the extra legs would have been more difficult for the mountain gazelle, also known as an Israeli Gazelle, and looking different could put him in danger due to standing out from the herd.
He is part of an endangered species, with only around 5,000 remaining despite them once being widespread in the Levant.
Added to this, the gazelle was spotted close to the Gaza strip, where Israel has been waging war for over six months.
Against the odds, the gazelle seems to thriving in the oasis area of southern Negev desert, the Jerusalem Post reports.
He was first spotted by army reservist Nir Leichter, who had stopped there for coffee.
Noticing something unusual about the animal, he took photos and sent them to the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), telling them about ‘something strange on its back’.
Mr Balaban, Director of Urban Nature, then went to find the herd and investigate and found that it had an extra pair of front legs.
He said he believed it is due to a genetic disorder called organ proliferation, or polymelia, and the gazelle is the first known to have it in the area.
As well as telling the paper about the gazelle’s unusual feature, he spoke about animals also being under threat from the nearby conflict.
The SPNI said in a statement that the group was ‘fighting to save every remaining open space and ecological corridor’.
Mr Balaban said: ‘There is still a lot of work to be done, such as improving areas defined as open spaces, [but] in practice blocked by fences, infrastructure, and more.’
He said the gazelles were also under threat from poachers who hunt them for meat, and from the ‘extreme increase in stray dogs and jackals, which prey on the gazelles and their fawns’.