Thanks to some leading and intensive efforts in Israel, and with international cooperation, the endangered scimitar-horned oryx is returning to Senegal, Africa, reports the latest edition of Eretz magazine. The oryx, once native to the northern stretches of Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic coast, was all but made extinct by hunting and habitat loss. It has been listed as Extinct in the Wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 1997.
Scimitar-horned oryx have been raised in Israel, on the Hai-Bar Nature Reserve in the southern desert, and eight of the herd have recently been delivered to the Guembeul Fauna Reserve in northwestern Senegal. The reintroduction of the animals - four adolescent females, three adolescent males, and one adult female - was carried out by a team of four Israelis, assisted by wildlife specialists from the United States and Taiwan, reports Eretz. The transplantation of the herd of oryx from Israel to Africa is the first step in a local breeding and rehabilitation program, as well as further reintroduction to other African sites.
In 1998, the scimitar-horned oryx was reintroduced to Tunisia. Once the Tunisian and Senegal herds successfully breed and the offspring themselves start breeding, the IUCN status of Extinct in the Wild will be revised. According to the Eretz piece, the animal (Oryx dammah) once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions all across the arid lands of northern Africa. Its image, the article notes, is carved among the antiquities of Carthage in the north and Timbuktu in the south. A global captive breeding program was initiated in the 1960s and by 1996 there were almost 2,500 captive animals in zoos, parks and ranches around the world, including here in Israel.
In 1998, the scimitar-horned oryx was reintroduced to Tunisia. Once the Tunisian and Senegal herds successfully breed and the offspring themselves start breeding, the IUCN status of Extinct in the Wild will be revised. According to the Eretz piece, the animal (Oryx dammah) once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions all across the arid lands of northern Africa. Its image, the article notes, is carved among the antiquities of Carthage in the north and Timbuktu in the south. A global captive breeding program was initiated in the 1960s and by 1996 there were almost 2,500 captive animals in zoos, parks and ranches around the world, including here in Israel.