This delicate graceful animal’s brownish beige coat, shines in the burning sun. The heat seems to swivel and make everything blurry. Vrooooomm. The sound in the distance echoes. Then suddenly, it runs and pounds across the dry desert ground. Then it stops. Turns and faces the enemy. Stamp, stamp, stamp. It’s foot cracks the dust ground below. It blows out of it’s nose and spray fills the air. This animal is not what it seems. 

The Chinkara Gazelle may look and seem friendly, but get to close, then that may be the end of it. This one of a kind animal lives along the dry and dusty grasslands of Iran and Bangladesh. These  animals live in habitats that have very little rain fall that only get up to about 150-750mm of water a year which means water access is very limited and hard to get to. 

Chinkara Gazelles do look quite muscular but there diet would surprise you in terms of their body size. These animals feed off leaves, grass, herbs and shrubs. The average fully grown Chinkara gazelle reaches up to 0.9-1.2 meters long with an average fully grown horn length of 184.7 mm long. It also has an average weight of 19kg when fully grown.

Some adaptations that this animal has are…

-When it has to change it’s diet depending on the time of year because of the amount of rainfall.

-When it has to adapt their water access during the droughts.

-When it is threatened, Chinkara gazelles stamp their forefoot and make a hissing noise through their nose which is actually a sneeze.

Fun Fact: Chinkara means “The Sneezer”

These animals are nocturnal animals. They start hunting at sunset and continue through the night.

What is your favourite animal and why?