Scimitar-horned Oryx, Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve, Chad
From around 11,000 - 3,000 BCE the Sahara was green, during the African Humid Period it was not desert, but lightly wooded savanna grassland, when this was the case Scimitar-horned Oryx would have been very common across northern Africa. Later depictions in Ancient Egyptian tomb art and in Roman mosaics suggest that they were still common in those days, but after the Roman period, the population of oryx started to gradually decline, as the climate changed and Africa became drier, however, they still survived in good numbers around the fringes of the Sahara up until the 20th century. Then their population went into steep decline, particularly following the introduction of better firearms and motor vehicles, hunters could kill more animals, more easily and gain access to areas of the Saharan region that would previously have been difficult to reach. The combination of habitat loss, competition with domestic livestock and overhunting, resulted in their extinction north of the Sahara, and a major reduction in numbers south of the Sahara, by the 1960s only one significant population remained in the Ouadi Rimé Ouadi Achim Game Reserve known as the OROA in central Chad. Unfortunately, civil war between the Chadian army and northern rebels backed by Colonel Gaddafi, made it too dangerous for rangers to operate in the reserve and these last wild oryx were poached, likely killed for meat by both sides during the conflict, sometime in the 1980s the Oryx likely became extinct, surveys conducted in the 90s found only skulls and horns, in the year 2000 the IUCN declared that the Scimitar-horned Oryx was extinct in the wild.
Luckily, in the 1960s when the oryx was still common in the OROA, fifty Oryx were captured to start a captive breeding programme, the animals were sent to zoos in the USA and from there to Europe and then around the world. During the 90s some captive oryx were returned to their natural habitat in fenced reserves in Tunisia and Morocco, but being fenced in they are not truly wild. Around a decade ago conservationists started to plan the reintroduction of oryx to the OROA, to re-establish a wild population in their last known home. Oryx were selected from zoos around the world including Marwell Zoo in the UK, to create a world herd of oryx at the Delaika Breeding Centre in Abu Dhabi, oryx from this herd would then be sent to Chad and ultimately released into the wild in the OROA. The first oryx in this project run by the Sahara Conservation Fund, were released in 2016, the plan is to release 500 oryx. Already the population in the OROA has grown to around 500, but a few more animals will be brought and released to bring the number of released animals up to 500.
December 2023 update, when I visited OROA in 2022 six years after the start of the oryx reintroduction project, despite there being a significant number of oryx back in the wild and plenty of wild born calves, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature still classified the SHO as Extinct in the Wild, however, they have just published their latest reassessment of the SHO and have changed their classification to Endangered. Thus, the Scimitar-horned Oryx’s return to the wild is now officially recognised and the wild population in OROA stands at over 600, this is a huge milestone for the project.
Scimitar-horned Oryx, Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve, Chad
From around 11,000 - 3,000 BCE the Sahara was green, during the African Humid Period it was not desert, but lightly wooded savanna grassland, when this was the case Scimitar-horned Oryx would have been very common across northern Africa. Later depictions in Ancient Egyptian tomb art and in Roman mosaics suggest that they were still common in those days, but after the Roman period, the population of oryx started to gradually decline, as the climate changed and Africa became drier, however, they still survived in good numbers around the fringes of the Sahara up until the 20th century. Then their population went into steep decline, particularly following the introduction of better firearms and motor vehicles, hunters could kill more animals, more easily and gain access to areas of the Saharan region that would previously have been difficult to reach. The combination of habitat loss, competition with domestic livestock and overhunting, resulted in their extinction north of the Sahara, and a major reduction in numbers south of the Sahara, by the 1960s only one significant population remained in the Ouadi Rimé Ouadi Achim Game Reserve known as the OROA in central Chad. Unfortunately, civil war between the Chadian army and northern rebels backed by Colonel Gaddafi, made it too dangerous for rangers to operate in the reserve and these last wild oryx were poached, likely killed for meat by both sides during the conflict, sometime in the 1980s the Oryx likely became extinct, surveys conducted in the 90s found only skulls and horns, in the year 2000 the IUCN declared that the Scimitar-horned Oryx was extinct in the wild.
Luckily, in the 1960s when the oryx was still common in the OROA, fifty Oryx were captured to start a captive breeding programme, the animals were sent to zoos in the USA and from there to Europe and then around the world. During the 90s some captive oryx were returned to their natural habitat in fenced reserves in Tunisia and Morocco, but being fenced in they are not truly wild. Around a decade ago conservationists started to plan the reintroduction of oryx to the OROA, to re-establish a wild population in their last known home. Oryx were selected from zoos around the world including Marwell Zoo in the UK, to create a world herd of oryx at the Delaika Breeding Centre in Abu Dhabi, oryx from this herd would then be sent to Chad and ultimately released into the wild in the OROA. The first oryx in this project run by the Sahara Conservation Fund, were released in 2016, the plan is to release 500 oryx. Already the population in the OROA has grown to around 500, but a few more animals will be brought and released to bring the number of released animals up to 500.
December 2023 update, when I visited OROA in 2022 six years after the start of the oryx reintroduction project, despite there being a significant number of oryx back in the wild and plenty of wild born calves, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature still classified the SHO as Extinct in the Wild, however, they have just published their latest reassessment of the SHO and have changed their classification to Endangered. Thus, the Scimitar-horned Oryx’s return to the wild is now officially recognised and the wild population in OROA stands at over 600, this is a huge milestone for the project.