BGP

Colophon

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The animal on the cover of BGP is the slender-horned gazelle (Gazella leptoceros). It is the palest of all gazelles and has slightly enlarged hooves for walking on sand. Both sexes have horns: in males, they are about a foot long, slender, and slightly “S” shaped. In females, they are significantly smaller and slimmer, about 8 inches long.

Females and young live in groups of 10 to 30. Adult males establish territories late in the year and mate with females that enter these territories. Females give birth in May or June and wean their one offspring approximately three months later. Gazelles weigh approximately 60 pounds and live about 14 years.

Due to the extreme heat of its desert environment, the slender-horned gazelle feeds mostly at night and in the early morning. Their water needs are small; morning dew on the vegetation they eat suffices. Their main cooling mechanisms are a reflective white coat and a specially adapted nasal passage.

The slender-horned gazelle lives in isolated pockets throughout the central Sahara Desert and has been classified as endangered because of excessive hunting for the animal’s meat and horns.

Mary Anne Weeks Mayo was the production editor, and Leanne Soylemez was the copyeditor, for BGP. Tatiana Apandi ...