Ecological studies on dorcas azelle in Egypt

The study covers some ecological aspects of thedorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas) in Elba region at theSouth Sastern Desert of Egypt. The study was conductedover 3 years, March 1982 through March 1985. It aimedat accomplishing four major objeotives. These are:1) Determine the gazelle habitat requirements. 2) Studyfeed habits of the species and detennine major preferableforage species. 3) Determine reproductive characteristics.4) ~tudy the limiting factors of the species.The study objectives were aocomplished throughdirect prolonged field observations and analysis of thegazelle habitat components. Feed habits were examinedby studying vegetation availability, utilization andpreferability by the gazelle.Availability of each plant species is expressedas relative percentages. The Point Center Quadrate method(P.C.Q.) was used to determine frequency of each species.Species utilization was determined as numbers of obser-vations for each species utilized; the results areexpressed as relative percentages of each species to allutilized species following Petrides (1975). The preferencerate was calculated. for each plant species utilized usingthe equasiona