A six-legged gazelle was spotted prancing in Israel by a member of the nation’s defense forces.
The animal had an extra pair of appendages growing from its back, which was caused by a genetic disorder called organ proliferation, or polymelia.
The rare syndrome is also found among humans, appearing in less than one per 100,000 births, but it has been reported in a range of mammals including cows, reptiles, chickens and mice.
The gazelle was seen on a nature reserve in the southern Negev desert that occupies Palestine and Israeli, which sits just a few miles from the Hamas music festival massacre site.
A six-legged gazelle was spotted prancing through Israel ‘s Holy Land by a member of the nation’s defense forces
The discovery was made by an Israeli army reservist Nir Leichter in late March when he stopped for coffee at the Nahal HaBoshor nature reserve.
Leichter quickly snapped a picture of the animal and sent it to the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) team in Jerusalem to further investigate, finding the gazelle was born with a mutation.
Wildlife experts determined that the animal was born in 2021 and ‘survived a complex litter and survived as a young individual, faced many predators that endanger young fawns,’ said Amir Balaban, with SPNI.
The gazelle was spotted by an Israel army reservist who snapped a picture and sent it to wildlife officials (here is the photo taken)
Balaban shared a statement in an Instagram post that was translated from Hebrew to English.
He noted that the gazelle spent most of its life in danger due to its mutation, as the extra legs meant it stood out from the herd.
However, the male had also met a mate and now has an offspring, which was captured by the IDF reservist.
‘Contrary to expectations, the deer is healthy, and strong and has three deer and a foal in its nest from last fall,’ Balaban shared.
‘He was [been] seen hosting the females in the short fields and the extra legs on his back are no challenge for him.’
SPNI believes the genetic birth defect is hereditary, but the gazelles fawn does not appear to have the same condition.
Balaban told CBS News that the animal was the first known gazelle to have the hereditary condition in the Middle East.
The six-legged gazelle (right) had also met a mate and now has an offspring, which was captured by the IDF reservist
The animal had an extra pair of appendages growing from its back, caused by a genetic disorder called organ proliferation, or polymelia
The animal was the first known gazelle to have the hereditary condition in the Middle East
In Israel, there are three sub-species: the Israeli gazelle, the Negev gazelle, and the Shitim gazelle, of which very few individuals remain, in the Arava region.
There is a visible difference between the sexes, as the male is larger, and his horns are longer than those of the female.
The Negev desert was the site of a bloodbath in October 2023 when the Hamas militant group descended from the skies to an area where revelers had gathered for an all-night trance music rave.
Hamas fighters managed to infiltrate Israel essentially undetected by paragliding across the normally heavily guarded frontier.
Moments later, the dancing stops and out terror ensues as festival goers are forced to run for their lives as armed Hamas fighters began shooting and kidnapping whoever lay in their path.
Panicked Israelis were seen shouting, running, and hurriedly getting into cars as they attempt to escape the festival in the north-western Negev desert, about 5 miles from the city of Ofakim.
