‘Extinct’ Graceful Oryx Thriving in the Saharan Wilds Thanks to Decades of Captive Breeding

Even as the final scimitar-horned oryx was felled for meat and leather on the Saharan dunes, a network of zoos, hunting reserves, and even a royal menagerie, guaranteed they would live on in captivity.

Now, 9 years after these graceful antelope were first introduced back into the lands they once roamed, they have become one of the only species in history to go from being “Extinct in the Wild” to “Endangered.”

With reintroduced populations in Chad, Tunisia, and Morocco, the wild oryx has risen in number from a whopping zero to around 600 animals, each bearing a remarkably-high amount of genetic diversity for a species once considered Extinct in the Wild.

The secret to that genetic heritage was a small number of concerned, well-to-do citizens who took action during the antelope’s downfall