Members of the Israel Defense Forces have spotted a six-legged gazelle prancing around in Israel.
The animal had an extra pair of appendages growing from its back, caused by a genetic disorder called organopolyptery, or polymyelia.
The rare syndrome is also seen in humans, occurring in fewer than 1 in 100,000 births, but has been reported in a variety of mammals, including cattle, reptiles, chickens and mice.
The gazelle was spotted in a nature reserve in the southern Negev Desert, which straddles Palestine and Israel, just a few miles from the site of the Hamas music festival massacre.
Members of the Israel Defense Forces have spotted a six-legged gazelle prancing around Israel's holy site.
The discovery was made by Israeli army reservist Nir Leichter when he stopped for coffee at the Nahal Havoshor Nature Reserve in late March.
Leichter quickly photographed the animal and sent it to a team from the Society for the Conservation of Nature in Israel (SPNI) in Jerusalem for further investigation, who discovered that the gazelle had been born with the mutation.
Wildlife experts determined that the animal was born in 2021 and “survived as a young individual after a complicated birth and faced many predators that put the young fawn at risk,” SPNI's Amir Balaban said.
The gazelle was spotted by an Israeli army reservist who photographed it and sent it to wildlife authorities (here's the photo they took).
Balaban posted a statement on Instagram, translated from Hebrew to English.
He noted that the gazelle's mutation, which gave it extra legs, made it stand out from the pack and put it at risk for most of its life.
However, the male also met a female and produced offspring, which were later captured by the Israel Defense Forces reservists.
“Contrary to expectations, the deer are healthy and strong, with three deer and one fawn in the den since last fall,” Balaban said.
'There he was. [been] He has been seen welcoming females into the short fields and the extra legs on his back are no threat to him.'
The SPNI believes the birth defect is hereditary, but gazelle fawns do not appear to show the same symptoms.
Balaban told CBS News the animal is the first known gazelle in the Middle East to have the genetic disease.
The six-legged gazelle (right) also mated and is now having offspring, which were captured by the Israel Defense Forces reservists.
The animal had an extra pair of appendages growing from its back due to a genetic disorder called organohyperplasia, or polycephaly.
The animal is the first known gazelle in the Middle East to be diagnosed with the genetic disease.
Israel is home to three subspecies of gazelle: the Israeli gazelle, the Negev gazelle, and the Shitim gazelle, which has an extremely small population in the Arava region.
Sex differences are evident, with males being larger and having longer horns than females.
The Negev desert was the site of a bloody massacre in October 2023 when Hamas militants descended from the sky into an area where people had gathered for an all-night trance music rave.
Hamas fighters managed to cross into Israel largely undetected by paragliding over the normally heavily guarded border.
After a while, the dancing came to a halt and armed Hamas fighters began shooting and abducting anyone in their way, forcing festival-goers to flee and spreading fear.
Panicked Israelis could be seen screaming, running and rushing into cars to try to flee the festival in the northwestern Negev Desert, about five miles from the city of Ofakim.
