page_title: Scimitar oryx
section_title: Status and conservation
hierarchical_section_title: Scimitar oryx / Status and conservation
caption_attribution_description: English: Scimitar-Horned Oryx, (Oryx dammah) in Marwell Zoo, Hampshire, UK
context_page_description: The scimitar oryx, also known as the scimitar-horned oryx and the Sahara oryx, is a species of Oryx that was once widespread across North Africa. The species went extinct in the wild in 2000, but a group was released into an acclimation enclosure within the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve in 2016, then reintroduced back into the wild. Twenty-one additional animals were placed in the acclimation enclosure in 2017.
  The scimitar oryx has a long taxonomic history since its scientific description in 1816 by Lorenz Oken, who named it Oryx algazel. This antelope stands a little more than 1 metre at the shoulder. The males weigh 140–210 kg and the females weigh 91–140 kg. The coat is white with a red-brown chest and black markings on the forehead and down the length of the nose. The calves are born with a yellow coat without distinguishing marks; their coats change to adult coloration at 3–12 months old.
  The scimitar oryx formed herds of mixed sexes of up to 70 members, usually guided by the bulls. They inhabited semideserts and deserts and were adapted to live in the extreme heat, with their efficient cooling mechanism and very low requirement of water.
context_section_description: Following the Neolithic Subpluvial, around 7500 to 3500 BCE, the "green Sahara" became dry and the scimitar oryx's population began to decline due to a loss of suitable habitat.  This was further exacerbated by humans who hunted the scimitar oryx for both its meat and horns.  The northern population was already almost lost before the 20th century.  With the introduction of horses and firearms during the 20th century, nomadic hunters were able to decimate populations. The decline of the southern population accelerated as Europeans began to settle the area and hunt them for meat, hides and horn trophies. French involvement in World War II and the civil war in Chad that started in the 1960s are thought to have caused heavy decreases of the species through an increase in hunting for food. Roadkill, nomadic settlements near watering holes (the oryx's dry-season feeding places), and introduction of cattle and firearms for easy hunting have also reduced numbers.
  The IUCN lists the scimitar oryx as regionally extinct in Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia and the Western Sahara, and has assessed it as extinct in the wild since 2000. Reports of sightings in Chad and Niger remain unsubstantiated, despite extensive surveys carried out throughout Chad and Niger from 2001 to 2004 in an effort to detect antelopes in the Sahel and the Sahara. At least until 1985, 500 scimitar oryx were estimated to be surviving in Chad and Niger, but by 1988, only a few individuals survived in the wild.
  There is now a global captive breeding program for the scimitar oryx. In 2015, about 1,750 captives were managed as part of breeding programs; at the program's peak, up to 11,000 were kept in Texas farms and 4,000 were held in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Reintroduction plans involve fenced-in herds in Bou-Hedma National Park (1985), Sidi Toui National Park (1999) and Oued Dekouk National Park (1999) in Tunisia; Souss-Massa National Park (1995) in Morocco; and Ferlo Faunal Reserve (1998) and Guembeul Wildlife Reserve (1999) in Senegal.
  Chad is currently leading a project to reintroduce the species in Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve, with the support of the Sahara Conservation Fund and the Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi. At 78,000 km² – equivalent to the size of Scotland- Ouadi Rimé Ouadi Achim is one of the world's largest protected areas. The first group was released at the beginning of 2016 in an acclimation enclosure and then fully released in the wild in the rainy season. That group was made of 21 animals, which by the beginning of 2017 had already produced a calf, the first birth in the wild for more than 20 years. A second group comprising six males and eight females was placed in the acclimation enclosure on 21 January 2017.
  The Marwell Zoo in Hampshire and the Edinburgh Zoo have also worked in partnership with ZSL to help reintroduce captive-bred scimitar oryx to their former natural ranges.  The Tunisian reintroductions began in 1985 with 10 scimitar oryxes from the Marwell and Edinburgh Zoos (co-ordinated by ZSL). In 1999 and 2007, Marwell co-ordinated the release of scimitar oryxes into three more protected areas within their former historic range.
caption: A group of scimitar oryxes at the Marwell Zoo in Hampshire, Great Britain
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