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The Mhorr gazelle, also known as Dama Gazelle or Nanga Dama is a species of the Bovidae family that lives in the dessert and savannah regions of North Africa. The species listed as critically endangered on the IUCN red list. With only 100-200 adult individuals left in their natural habitats, the responsibility of zoo institutions has increased in importance over the last few years as they hold the responsibility to maintain the populations in captivity. To achieve this goal, reproductive monitoring is a key approach. The main methods in Mhorr gazelles, in the past, included blood drawing and direct measurement of progesterone. This method however includes anaesthetising the animal as handling would not be possible in these stressed prey animals.

The aim of our study was to analyse the reproductive cycle of captive Mhorr-gazelle females. During the study three Mhorr gazelles (Mila, Zawadi and Zuhura) were sampled from daily faecal collection between April-October, 2025 in individual stalls at Budapest Zoo. Samples were collected in the morning after each gazelle spend the evening in their individual stables. During the study one gazelle was found to have been pregnant and gave birth, and excluded from the summer-fall sampling period. The samples where then stored in 50 ml conical tubes at -25 °C until hormonal extraction. Progesterone metabolite concentration of fecal samples (fPM) was measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbeant assay (ELISA). Reproductive cycle of each female during the collection period, and seasonal differences were analysed. Pregnancy was also independently confirmed by the presence of offspring at the zoo.

A non-invasive method using ELISA faecal progesterone measurement has been established to accurately measure the progesterone levels, its trends over time and thereby determine pregnancy or other possible reproductive aspects such as pregnancy loss or acyclicity. We found fPM pattern similar to blood progesterone trends of related species, which proves that this approach is suitable for reproductive monitoring of the endangered Mhorr gazelle. We found higher overall fPM concentration in Zawadi, compared to Zuhura, with higher peak levels. Analysis of fPM levels in each season did not show any difference between the two females. Baseline progesterone concentrations remained similar in all 3 gazelles.

The faecal progesterone metabolite ELISA showed to be an accurate method to determine pregnancy in Mhorr gazelles. This method can be applied in routine work of the zoo veterinarian to determine pregnancy in a non-invasive way. Repeated monitoring for a longer period of time can help to identify pregnancy but also indicate reproductive problems where present.