The birth of a 20-pound Scimitar-Horned Oryx at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington has been heralded as a treasure for this species of desert antelope that is virtually extinct in the wild. This gives the scientists hope that one day they could reintroduce this animal into the wild.
The female calf, born last month, is the first Oryx birth in more than 13 years at the zoo and is the 16th addition to the zoo’s Conservation Biology Institute. The Oryx, an emblem of grace and beauty in countries such as Qatar, which features the antelope as its national symbol, is distinguishable by its backward-sweeping, curved horns that grow several feet in length, which were highly prized by big game hunters and poachers.
Around 1900, as many as a million Scimitar-Horned Oryx roamed across the Maghreb and south of the Sahara. However, overhunting, habitat-encroachment and regional instabilities in the 1980s drove the wild population into extinction, according conservation statistics.
"Not too often are there a million animals on the planet that are 250-300 pounds, roaming around the entire width of Africa, that go extinct with a whimper and most people have never even heard of this species," said Steven Monfort, Director of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, the National Zoo’s conservation center, in an interview with KUNA.
Scientists at the National Zoo and across the zoological community have teamed up with the international not-for-profit organization Sahara Conservation Fund to preserve the few thousand Oryx that remain in captivity with a plan, years in the making, to restore them to their natural habitat, despite serious threats that have shuttered similar programs in the Middle East.
Those that remained were held in zoos in Europe and the United States, as well as private collectors across the world, including Texas and across the Gulf. The UAE has a collection of as many as 4,000-6,000, the world’s largest captive herd of Scimitar-Horned Oryx.
Given the numbers of Oryx held in captivity, including those already in Africa or the neighboring Gulf states, reintroduction could be quite rapid, i.e. within the next two-three years, John Newby, CEO of the Sahara Conservation Fund, headquartered in Switzerland, told KUNA.
Reintroduction is only the first step scientists say will help restore the desert antelope population in the wild. "Reintroduction programs go on forever. It’s very rare to simply reintroduce an animal and say ’mission accomplished’. It doesn’t generally happen that way — the animals need to be monitored, studies and protected especially in areas where there are no fences, " said Monfort.
For example, the Arabian Oryx reintroduction program in Oman, once considered one of the greatest success stories when it was launched more than 20 years ago, ended up tragically. The program included a designated World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Unfortunately, according the Monfort, "A few years ago they started experiencing poaching of the herd and the females were being taken so they could be sold on the black market to collectors who preferred wild Oryx to captive ones." "That project was absolutely decimated and down to such a small number of animals remaining that they had to bring most of them into captivity," and the World Heritage Site designation was lost and the program is currently in jeopardy of not being sustained, said Monfort.
"It just shows that after the program was going for more than a couple of decades it fell apart because they were not able to protect the animals," he added.
According to Newby, the same challenges plaguing the Arabian Oryx program in Oman would remain but "the difference will be in the approach." It would include active participation of many players from the outset, including neighboring range states, local communities and wildlife authorities surrounding the 100,000 square kilometer fence-less wildlife refuge in Niger, the selected location for the reintroduction program. It would be one of the largest protected areas in the world.
This includes proposing incentives to the local tribal communities such as ecotourism, providing livestock subsidies and veterinary care, or health and education benefits in exchange for protection of the Scimitar-Horned Oryx.
"It’s being protected hopefully by buying cooperation, goodwill with local people by having monitors that are out there studying the animals, by providing incentives so that you are making a live Oryx worth more than a dead Oryx," Monfort said.
In the long term, success for species like the Oryx will depend on the willingness of stakeholders and their leaders to accept and encourage the presence of secure and free-ranging wildlife as a valuable resource. Hence, they must take conservation seriously into consideration as part of overall land-use planning, investment, etc, according to Newby. "Wildlife is not and should not be considered expendable in the face of development." In addition, "private collections play an extremely important role in maintaining the Oryx population in captivity and providing animals and resources for future reintroduction projects," said Newby.
So far, "Support from governments in North Africa has been very strong, especially from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Both Morocco and Tunisia already have ongoing Oryx captive-breeding programs with animals in fenced enclosures. Senegal, Niger and Chad are also strongly engaged in the process," according to Newby.
Meanwhile, support from the Gulf States is currently limited to the UAE, whom Newby called a "major player" in the project, while hope remains that it will be the first of many GCC states to support the Oryx conservation initiative.
"I sincerely believe the resources and growing commitment to conservation in the Gulf States offer serious potential for programs of this nature. If there is one region on Earth with an attachment, understanding and genuine appreciation for the nature and cultural wealth of deserts it is there," Newby emphasized.
"Unless serious efforts are made, species like the Addax, Dama Gazelle, Slender-Horned Gazelle and Barbary Sheep will all join the Oryx as animals that only survive in captive populations. This must be avoided at all costs," Newby stressed.
In addition to their partnership with the global conservation effort to restore these animals into the wild, Monfort and other scientists at the National Zoo have establish a "world herd" genome resource bank for the Scimitar-Horned Oryx that can be used to help keep herds genetically diversified and ensure the legacy of the species.
"The idea of creating a global genetic resource bank is that you collect the sperm and eggs that will represent the diversity of the animals in the living population," said Monfort. The samples are frozen in nitrogen and preserved in a cryobank for decades or longer.
"If a catastrophe occurs, the male of a species dies before it breeds or something, it’s an insurance policy for you, "he explained.
Last year, zoo scientists used frozen male genetic material of the Black-footed Ferret, a critically endangered species with only 18 estimated in the wild, to produce offspring through artificial insemination. The father had been dead for more than 10 years, according to Monfort. "It’s not cloning. It’s basically artificial insemination." "Because most of the species we work with are critically endangered or extinct in the wild, each offspring born here is a real treasure and a testament to our scientific efforts," said Monfort. Each newborn, like the zoo’s month-old Oryx calf, "represents hope that their species will survive." (KUNA)
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