Most common on semi-arid grasslands, but also found in dwarf shrub (e.g., Indogofera intricata) and barren rangelands, at altitudes below 2,500 m. The presence of a biting tabanid fly (Haematopota sp.) during the mid-growing season prompts movements to the coast or large inland sand dunes where the breeze disperses the flies. Speke's Gazelles also move to these areas in the late dormant season because the sparse vegetation stays green longer on these sites, possibly because the roots access soil moisture stored deeper in the dunes (Thurow 2013). In Somaliland, Speke's Gazelle occurs on open grassland plains (bans), occasionally in open Acacia bussei bush, and stony hillsides with sparse Acacia etbaica and Buxus hildebrandtii bushes up to 1,650 m (Mallon and Jama 2015).

Speke's Gazelle (Gazella spekei) is endemic to the Horn of Africa and was formerly widespread in the arid grasslands of central, north-east and northern Somalia and the central coastal region. It still occurred widely within its historical range in the 1980s, although its numbers had been reduced greatly by hunting, drought and overgrazing of its habitat by domestic livestock. Formerly it inhabited the 20-40 km wide grassland plain that extends along the Hobyo coastline of Somalia and was common there in the mid-1980s but hunting pressure has eliminated the species from coastal grasslands south of 2°30'N latitude (East 1999, Thurow 2013). In Somaliland (northern Somalia) it was formerly common and widespread on the plateau south of the Golis range (Drake-Brockman 1910) west to about 44°E (Funaioli and Simonetta 1966). Speke's Gazelle is still thinly distributed on open plains (bans) in Somaliland, west to about 44°35'E (Mallon and Jama 2015). The species was also reported in Puntland region of northern Somalia, between Garowe and Galkayo and in the Nogaal Valley by Lorenz (2010). Scattered groups of Speke's Gazelle were still rarely encountered in the northern Ogaden in eastern Ethiopia in the mid-1980s, but extreme hunting pressure was on the verge of eliminating the species from the Ogaden at that time and there is no recent information to indicate that they are still present there (Wilhelmi et al. 2006).

There are no functioning protected areas or active field conservation programmes within its range. Its conservation status is therefore likely to decline further unless effective protection and management or representative populations and their habitat can be developed and implemented. Small populations of Speke's Gazelle are maintained in captivity.