Unicorn of the desert
The Arabian oryx has an almost talismanic significance for Fauna & Flora. We played a key role in saving it from extinction when we launched ‘Operation Oryx’ in 1962. Decades later, it became the first animal ever to be successfully reintroduced into its original habitat after being declared extinct in the wild. The rescue of the Arabian oryx is one of Fauna & Flora’s most celebrated conservation success stories.
Fascinating facts about the Arabian oryx
Arabian oryx. © Suzi / Adobe Stock
Out of Africa
This is the world’s smallest oryx species and the only one found outside Africa.
Arabian oryx. © Kertu / Adobe Stock
Whiter shade of pale
The species is also known as the white oryx.
Where does the Arabian oryx live?
The Arabian oryx was once widely distributed across the Arabian Peninsula and north to Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and the Sinai desert in Egypt. Today, it can be found in Israel, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The only one of the four oryx species to occur outside Africa, the Arabian oryx inhabits sandy and stony deserts and is supremely well adapted to this hostile environment.
How does the Arabian oryx survive in the desert?
The Arabian oryx has a bright, white coat that reflects the sun’s harsh rays, while splayed hooves allow it to negotiate the sandy terrain more easily. It can survive for extended periods without a direct water source – because it obtains all the moisture it needs by eating desert plants – and is capable of travelling vast distances in search of new growth. Arabian oryx are active mainly around dawn and dusk, and tend to rest in the shade during the heat of the day. They dig with their hooves to create a bed of cooler sand in which to lie.
Arabian oryx family life
The species is gregarious and forms herds comprising as many as 30 individuals. When conditions are less favourable these herds break down into smaller units, with males becoming more solitary and ranging more widely.
Arabian oryx. © Staffan Widstrand / Getty Images
Two male Arabian oryx clash horns as they fight for dominance over the herd.
How many wild Arabian oryx are left in the wild?
Today, there are roughly 1,200 Arabian oryx roaming the deserts of the Middle East. By 1972, it had been driven to extinction in the wild. In the intervening years, it has made a remarkable comeback, thanks originally to the timely intervention of Fauna & Flora.
Lone oryx. © Kertu / Adobe Stock
A solitary Arabian oryx in its vast desert habitat.
What are the main threats to the Arabian oryx?
Traditionally hunted for its meat and hide by the Bedouin of the Arabian Peninsula, this elegant antelope has always led a precarious existence, but the threats to its survival were exacerbated by the ready availability of automatic weapons and motorised vehicles, and the increasing popularity of sport hunting.
How Fauna & Flora helped rescue the Arabian oryx from extinction
By the middle of the 20th century, the Arabian oryx was well on the way to becoming a footnote in the natural history books. The plight of this relatively obscure desert antelope was not seriously addressed until 1962, when the Fauna Preservation Society, as Fauna & Flora was then known, devised and executed an ambitious rescue plan, called Operation Oryx.
What was Operation Oryx?
An expedition was mounted to what is now South Yemen, with the aim of capturing several of the last surviving wild Arabian oryx, which would form the nucleus of a captive herd. The long-term goal was to reintroduce the species to its original habitat at an appropriate future date.
Three of the four captured animals survived the ordeal, and were eventually shipped to Phoenix Zoo in Arizona, where the climate was similar to that in southern Arabia. A breeding programme was established, initially comprising the three captured oryx and a female from London Zoo, but subsequently augmented by further individuals, courtesy of the Sultan of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia’s King Saud.
A decade later, the so-called World Herd at Phoenix numbered 35 individuals, and six animals were transferred to form a satellite colony at San Diego Zoo. Meanwhile, hunting of the remaining wild Arabian oryx continued unabated, and by October 1972 the last animals had been reported killed or captured.
Captive breeding proved so successful that by 1992 there were 1,600 Arabian oryx distributed widely among the world’s zoos and private collections. Paradoxically, the main challenge for conservationists has not been to breed the species in captivity, but to overcome the problems inherent in returning the Arabian oryx to the wild. Since habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict did not pose a problem in this instance, successful reintroduction was contingent solely on preventing the relentless hunting perpetrated by a thoughtless minority.
Operation oryx archive image. © Anthony Shepherd
This newborn Arabian oryx calf was one of the first additions to the captive-breeding programme that eventually enabled the species to be reintroduced into the wild.
Reintroduction to the wild
In 1978, four animals were shipped to the recently created Shaumari Wildlife Reserve in Jordan, where they were bred in captivity for a further five years, at which point 31 Arabian oryx were released into the protected area. That same year, a small founder herd was dispatched to a reserve in Israel. Arguably the most momentous event occurred in 1982, when 10 oryx were released into the open desert in central Oman on the stony plateau of Jiddat-al-Harasis. Although heavily guarded and intensively studied, this herd was completely independent.
By 1996 there were over 300 Arabian oryx in the wild. The celebrations were premature, however. Poaching soon resumed and quickly intensified to the point where it was deemed necessary to bring some animals into captivity again, in order to secure the long-term future of the species.
The intervening years have witnessed further vindication of the original captive-breeding and reintroduction initiative that helped save this beleaguered antelope from extinction. With effect from 2011, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species reclassified the Arabian oryx as Vulnerable. Coming just 40 years after the species was officially declared Extinct in the Wild, this represented a remarkable conservation achievement.
The Arabian oryx has been reintroduced into the wild in Israel, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and UAE, and several thousand are now held in captivity. Hunting remains a serious threat to this day, particularly in Oman where, ironically, the population has been decimated by illegal live capture for sale to private collections. Leaving aside the problems that continue to undermine its recovery, the resurrection of the Arabian oryx remains one of conservation’s most enduring success stories.
Saving species, together
Fauna & Flora rescued the Arabian oryx from certain extinction. With your help, we can do the same for so many other animals that are in urgent need of protection.
Please help us bring other endangered species back from the brink.
Donate nowSand dune. © Ally Catterick / Fauna & Flora