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Ten Years of Arabian Oryx Conservation Breeding in Saudi Arabia - Achievements and Regional Perspectives

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Ten Years of Arabian Oryx Conservation Breeding in Saudi Arabia - Achievements and Regional Perspectives ORYX VOL 32 NO 3 JULY 1998 Ten years of Arabian oryx conservation breeding in Saudi Arabia - achievements and regional perspectives Stephane Ostrowski, Eric Bedin, Daniel M. Lenain and Abdulaziz H. Abuzinada The National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development was established in 1986 to oversee all wildlife conservation programmes in Saudi Arabia. The Arabian oryx Oryx leucoryx is one of the flagship species of the Saudi Arabian reintroduction policy. It has been captive-bred since 1986 at the National Wildlife Research Center near Taif. With the creation of a network of protected areas in the former distribution range of the species, attention has shifted to the release of captive-bred oryx into Mahazat as-Sayd and 'Uruq Bani Ma'arid reserves. Similar programmes carried out in other countries of the Arabian Peninsula underline the need for regional co-operation and pan-Arabic public awareness programmes, in addition to captive-breeding and reintroduction projects. Introduction appears to be on the way to becoming another conservation success story. The Arabian oryx Oryx leucoryx is a charis- The restoration of the Arabian oryx in Saudi matic animal; merely the beauty of its eyes Arabia is a core programme of the National was enough to inspire the poets of the Arab Commission for Wildlife Conservation and world. Unfortunately, this beauty did not con- Development (NCWCD), and has support at fer immortality, and over hundreds of years the highest governmental levels. Concurrent the Arabian oryx was pursued and hunted in projects for the protection of large areas its most remote desert strongholds. The last within the former range of the Arabian oryx, wild Arabian oryx was probably killed in 1972 and the captive breeding of oryx at the (Henderson, 1974), and its death became a National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) symbol of human destruction of the natural have together enabled the restoration of the world. Humans exterminated from the wild a species in Saudi Arabia. beautiful and distinctive antelope, which had With releases into the wild, attention has evolved to exploit one of the world's harshest shifted from the captive-breeding stock to the environments. The capture of a few of the last free-ranging Mahazat as-Sayd and 'Uruq Bani wild oryx in 1962 (Grimwood, 1962) marked Ma'arid oryx populations. National endorse- the beginning of Operation Oryx. Through ment of the latest release project in 'Uruq Bani captive breeding, the return of descendants Ma'arid has encouraged further national ef- from the founder herd to Arabian lands was forts and new reintroductions are planned. possible and oryx were first returned to the wild in Oman in 1982. With the release of oryx into the unfenced 'Uruq Bani Ma'arid pro- Historical range tected area, the restoration of the Arabian oryx to the deserts of Saudi Arabia became a reality Oryx once ranged throughout most of the (Ancrenaz and Flamand, 1995). The reintro- desert plains of the Arabian Peninsula. Most duction of Arabian oryx into Saudi Arabia recorded sightings come from the journals of © 1998 FFI, Oryx, 32 (3), 209-222 209 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.22, on 25 Sep 2021 at 09:15:26, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3008.1998.d01-38.x S. OSTROWSKI ET AL. the first European travellers to the region (e.g. Protectorate ('Operation Oryx'), followed by Carruthers, 1935). Regions in Saudi Arabia donations from some of these private collec- known to have once held oryx include the tions, led to the formation of what is known as Great Nafud Desert, the Rub'al-Khali and the the World Herd (Grimwood, 1988). sandy area known as the Dahana, which links these two deserts (Doughty, 1888; Carruthers, 1935; Raswan, 1935; Talbot, 1960). Elsewhere Saudi Arabia's Arabian oryx restoration in the Arabian Peninsula, evidence of oryx has programme been found in the west of the United Arab Emirates, at the edges of Dhofar mountains, Rub'al-Khali and Jiddat al-Harasis regions of Conservation framework for the Arabian oryx Oman, and in Yemen (Philby, 1933; Thesiger, The basis of Saudi Arabian conservation pro- 1948; Shepherd, 1965; Harrison and Bates, grammes for the Arabian oryx and other en- 1991). Even today horns and bones of oryx can dangered species is the NCWCD's Protected still be found in the Rub'al-Khali's gravel Area System Plan (Child and Grainger, 1990). plains. The former range of the species con- This document details the status of areas of sisted of vast deserts, which were linked by interest for threatened taxa protection and de- gravel corridors and plains over which the scribes the physiogeography of and manage- animals were able to range for hundreds of ment objectives for these areas. Additionally, a kilometres (Harrison and Bates, 1991). In Iraq, conservation strategy for the Arabian oryx the last oryx was shot in 1914 (Hatt, 1959), (Seddon et ah, 1996) is currently under review. whereas oryx were still observed in Syria after The ultimate goal of the Saudi Arabian pro- the first World War (Harrison and Bates, gramme is to re-establish self-sustaining, free- 1991). Unconfirmed reports around this time ranging populations of Arabian oryx within a of the presence of oryx in the volcanic plains framework of protected areas throughout the of Harrat al-Harrah, north of the Nafud historically documented range of the species. desert, could attest to a migration in response Five phases have been defined towards the to human pressure. With the flow of oil rev- achievement of this goal. enue to Saudi Arabia in the second half of the 1 To create and maintain an Arabian oryx century, pressures on oryx populations in- captive-breeding facility at NWRC, and to de- creased dramatically as they were heavily per- velop techniques for the release of captive- secuted for trophies and for meat by hunters bred animals. bearing automatic weapons and travelling in motorized fleets (Thesiger, 1948). By 1968, 2 To create a network of protected areas oryx range was limited to the southern and within the historically documented range of south-eastern borders of the Rub'al-Khali and the Arabian oryx in Saudi Arabia. the desert edge of Oman (Harrison and Bates, 3 To supply these areas with the appropriate 1991). The last oryx were recorded alive in the facilities and adequate personnel to support wild in 1972 in Oman where they were killed reintroduction operations. or captured only a few weeks later 4 To translocate oryx from captive-breeding (Henderson, 1974). Despite unconfirmed re- facilities to suitably prepared protected areas. ports of a pair of oryx and a lone animal in 5 To reinforce released populations until 1978 and 1979 in the Rub'al-Khali, it is widely natural population growth appears sufficient assumed that the Arabian oryx had been to ensure self-sustainability. eradicated from the wild by the mid-1970s. Some of the protected areas are very close to the Kingdom's borders, so these management In the years before the last animals were objectives call for regional co-operation with shot, a number of individuals had been taken other organizations and countries with similar from the wild and kept in captivity within pri- objectives. As in most reintroduction/re-es- vate collections throughout the Middle East. tablishment projects, promotion of public Capture of oryx from the wild in the Aden awareness campaigns and encouragement of 210 © 1998 FFI, Oryx, 32 (3), 209-222 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.22, on 25 Sep 2021 at 09:15:26, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3008.1998.d01-38.x ARABIAN ORYX CONSERVATION BREEDING IN SAUDI ARABIA Figure 1. Development of three DC-generation B-generation captive-bred oryx populations A-generation (A, B, C) at the National Wildlife Research Center of Taif since 1986. A-generation oryx, animals imported to the NWRC, Taif; B- generation oryx, hand-reared animals (descendants of A- generation animals); C- generation, mother-reared animals (descendants of B- generation animals). public support for Arabian oryx conservation in isolation to avoid the intraspecific risk of are essential. transmission of the disease. The second gener- ation (B) comprises hand-reared animals whose mother-reared offspring (C generation) Conservation breeding are used for reintroduction. Drastic sanitary History. Deliberate and organized captive measures, antibiotic treatment, annual tuber- breeding of the Arabian oryx began in the culosis testing of all the captive animals and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in April 1986, when hand-rearing of calves from the founder gen- 57 animals were transported from the farm of eration enabled the breeding of tuberculosis- the late King Khaled in Thumamah to the free animals. This 'three-generation NWRC in Taif. During the first 2 months the management' has been maintained for basic mortality rate was high in the NWRC herd sanitary purposes even after the captive herd (Haagsma and Poilane, 1989). By September was free of tuberculosis. On 1 January 1997, 1989, 16 (28 per cent) animals had died of tu- the NWRC herd numbered 49 A-generation, berculosis. Because of the inestimable genetic 151 B-generation and 45 C-generation individ- value of the herd in relation to the rest of the uals (Figure 1). world herd, it was decided to attempt to eradicate the infection through the use of sani- Original aspects of the NWRC herd. The Arabian tary and management measures (Flamand et oryx is reared in captivity world-wide, with al., 1994; Greth et ah, 1994).
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