He’s pretty light on his feet – all six of them.
A mountain gazelle with two extra legs growing out of its back was seen in Israel — and experts say that despite his physical challenges, he is “healthy” and “strong.”
The six-legged gazelle was spotted in late March by army reservist Nir Leichter when he stopped for a coffee at the Nahal HaBoshor nature reserve in the western Negav, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Leichter sent a photo of the gazelle to the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, which attributed the strange condition to a rare genetic condition known as polymelia, or organ proliferation.
The gazelle is the first known example of the hereditary condition – which mostly occurs in the cattle, birds, and reptiles – in a mountain gazelle in the Middle East, SPNI conservationist Amir Balaban told CBS News.
The six-legged gazelle survived a complex birth and navigated predators in the wild in order to mature into a thriving adult, Balaban noted.
“Contrary to expectations, the gazelle is healthy, strong, and has three female gazelles and a fawn from the previous fall. He has been seen hosting the females in the fields and the extra legs on his back pose no challenge to him,” he noted.
Mountain gazelles are a protected species in Israel, where only about 5,000 are believed to remain in the wild, the outlet noted.
The six-legged gazelle’s survival is all the more impressive because his territory in the western Negev is just a free miles from the war-torn Gaza Strip.
The area is “one of the most important remaining strongholds for the Israeli gazelle in the western Negev, especially during the recent war,” according to SPNI.
In addition to Israel, mountain gazelles can also be spotted in Turkey, parts of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, and the Palestinian territories.
