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The Arabian oryx is back, but still crying for help

Some 1,000 Arabian oryx roam freely in the wild, throughout the deserts of the Middle East, while up to 7,000 more live in protected parks, wildlife reserves and zoos.

Abu Dhabi - From zero to 1,000, the Arabian oryx had made a spectacular come back into the wild. Only three decades ago these majestic, long-horned antelopes, indigenous to these parts, were completely extinct in the wild.

Nowadays, thanks to conservation projects, some 1,000 Arabian oryx roam freely in the wild, throughout the deserts of the Middle East, while up to 7,000 more live in protected parks, wildlife reserves and zoos.

How they are all doing was the reason the Coordination Committee for the Conservation of the Arabian oryx (CCCAO) met on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.

Chaired by the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD), the Committee includes governments from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Yemen and UAE.

“As a result of cooperation efforts between the range states in the region and in coordination with international environmental organisations, the range states succeeded in breeding the Arabian oryx, bringing it back from the verge of extinction, and reintroduced it in suitable habitats in the region,” said Dr Sheikha Al Dhaheri, executive director of the Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity Sector at EAD.

“We achieved an outstanding success in 2011 when IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) re-classified the Arabian oryx as Vulnerable after it had been listed as Extinct in the wild,” she added.

Hunted to extinction — the last few Arabian oryx in the wild prior to reintroduction were reported in 1972 in Saudi Arabia — the animals were rescued by the Phoenix Zoo in US and the Fauna and Flora International, a preservation society in London, which bred a couple of hundred Arabian oryx successfully. In the early 70s, Shaikh Zayed found a few of these captive bred Arabian oryx in a US zoo and brought them to Sir Bani Yas island, in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi emirate.

Protected from hunting, predators and any human development, the specimens here did well and there are now hundreds roaming freely in the island’s wildlife park.

Working closely with EAD, when the numbers get too big they are moved to a bigger nature reserve near Liwa, run by EAD, where there are now hundreds more Arabian oryx doing very well.

Reports have also shown that the Arabian oryx is doing well in Saudi Arabia as well, where 600 of them have been released back into the wild. Oman was the first country to reintroduce the Arabian oryx back into its natural habitat, which is gravel desert, as early as 1982. To start with, Oman’s Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was doing very well, reaching nearly 500 specimens.

From 2007, though, as a result of Oman’s opening the sanctuary to oil exploration and also due to illegal live capture, from nearly 500, less than 50 Arabian oryx are counted in Oman today.

For its future plans, CCCAO has decided to improve cooperation in the information exchange field, as well as conservation know-how.

“Due to the challenges faced by the member states in implementing the regional strategy for the conservation of Arabian oryx, the General Secretariat during the next stage will, in coordination with the concerned parties in the member states, focus on facilitating knowledge and data exchange on Arabian oryx protection programmes in the member states, which will actively help the concerned parties and environmental researchers access important information on conserving Arabian oryx in its range states,” stressed Dr Al Dhaheri. -silvia@khaleejtimes.com