Twenty years of conservation and monitoring of re- introduced mountain gazelle in the Ibex Reserve, Saudi Arabia

Summary

Mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) was locally extinct in central Saudi Arabia's Tuwaiq Mountains before the Saudi Wildlife Authority began reintroducing captive-bred stock from King Khalid Wildlife Research Centre into the 1,870 km2 Ibex Reserve in 1990, primarily established to protect the region's last Nubian ibex. Across 11 release events from 1990 to 2007, totaling well over 100 gazelles released into four fenced wadi entrances and the open plateau, animals were vaccinated, transported individually in ventilated crates, and held in pre-release pens for four weeks to build site fidelity before release; radio-collars and ear-tags tracked survival and dispersal. The Wadi Mutim population initially grew rapidly, reaching about 185 animals by 1995 with a doubling time of roughly 2.5 years, but then crashed to about 70 by 1998 due to livestock encroachment, poaching, and poor relations between local people and the Wildlife Authority; further decline brought numbers down to 10-40 by 2007, stabilizing at 10-20 since then. The separately released Wadi Nukhailan population also failed to grow, with radio-collared individuals dropping from 14 to just one within two years, though counts had recovered to roughly 30-40 by 2011, and a new group was discovered 27.5 km from the nearest release site in 2010, evidence of successful dispersal despite ongoing pressure. Local hostility toward the reserve, driven by weak law enforcement and little conservation education, remains an unresolved core problem. The project rates itself Partially Successful, citing a low but persistent population sustained despite marginal habitat, competition, poaching and livestock grazing.