The Fall and Rise of the Scimitar‐Horned Oryx

Woodfine, Tim; Gilbert, Tania

doi:10.1002/9781118409572.ch14

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…A programme of SHO reintroductions occurred in Tunisia between 1985–2007 (Woodfine & Gilbert, 2016) and since 2014, a large‐scale effort to release the species back into its native range has been led by the EAD. To date, ~200 individuals have been released into Chad, and more animals are due to be reintroduced in the coming years until a self‐sustaining population is reached.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The scimitar‐horned oryx (SHO), Oryx dammah , is a large iconic antelope and one of two mammalian species classified as extinct in the wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group, 2016). This arid‐land adapted species was once widespread across North Africa, however a combination of hunting and land‐use competition resulted in rapid population decline until the last remaining individuals disappeared in the 1980s (Woodfine & Gilbert, 2016). Before they were declared extinct, captive populations were established from what is thought to be around 50 individuals, mostly originating from Chad (Woodfine & Gilbert, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This arid‐land adapted species was once widespread across North Africa, however a combination of hunting and land‐use competition resulted in rapid population decline until the last remaining individuals disappeared in the 1980s (Woodfine & Gilbert, 2016). Before they were declared extinct, captive populations were established from what is thought to be around 50 individuals, mostly originating from Chad (Woodfine & Gilbert, 2016). In the decades that followed, captive SHO numbers increased to reach ~15,000 individuals (Gilbert, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Chromosomal‐level genome assembly of the scimitar‐horned oryx: Insights into diversity and demography of a species extinct in the wild

Humble

Dobrynin

Senn

et al. 2020

Molecular Ecology Resources

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Chromosomal‐level genome assembly of the scimitar‐horned oryx: Insights into diversity and demography of a species extinct in the wild

Humble

Dobrynin

Senn

et al. 2020

Molecular Ecology Resources

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“…Oryx feed on a wide variety of grasses and forbs and rarely drink surface water, instead obtaining moisture from grazed vegetation, wild Citrullus melons, and occasionally Acacia seed pods (Gillet, 1965;Dragesco-Joffé, 1993. Historically, oryx were relatively abundant within their range, and were hunted for meat and hides (Dolan, 1966;Newby, 1980Newby, , 1988. Increased hunting pressure, arising from political instability and the introduction of automated weapons and motorized vehicles, along with exclusion from high-quality habitat by nomadic pastoralists and insufficient legal protection, resulted in the species' steady decline during the twentieth century (Durant et al, 2014;Woodfine and Gilbert, 2016). The last sightings of oryx in the wild occurred in the late 1980s (Newby, 1988), and the species was officially classified as Extinct in the Wild in 1999 (Hilton- Taylor, 2000).…”

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management Background and Release Conditions Structure Post-release Movements in Reintroduced Ungulates

et al. 2019

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One of the greatest challenges in restoring species to the wild is insufficient knowledge about their habitat requirements and movement ecology. This is especially true for wide-ranging species such as the scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah). Once widespread across Sahelo-Saharan grasslands, oryx were declared Extinct in the Wild in 1999. Here, we integrate GPS/satellite tracking, remote sensing, and movement analyses to assess how reintroduced oryx respond to wild conditions. We monitored two groups of oryx, reared under different captive management regimes and released in different seasons, for 12 months after release. Our study provides the first movement trajectories and home range estimates for this species. We expected oryx movements after release to represent trade-offs between risky, energetically expensive exploration and resource exploitation. Oryx raised under semi-free ranging conditions and released during the wet season ("ranging") exhibited this pattern of exploration followed by home range establishment. In contrast, oryx raised in small pens and released during the dry season ("penned") explored far less novel terrain. Ranging oryx exhibited seasonal shifts in activity and movement timing, while penned oryx simply reduced overall movement and continuously accessed supplemental food and water. Sahelian ecosystems exhibit strong seasonal cycles and extensive spatial variation. In this highly variable environment, reintroduced oryx will need to disperse from the release site to acquire adequate forage throughout the year. Thus, we experimentally varied acclimation period, and expected dispersal to decrease with acclimation period length. Post-release dispersal ranged from 2 to 90 km: ranging oryx acclimated for ca. 6 months moved 40-60 km from the release site, while penned oryx acclimated for ca. 1 month remained within 5-25 km. Our results demonstrate that captive management and environmental conditions at release strongly influence the extent to which reintroduced oryx disperse and adapt to wild conditions. We also show that-in contrast to previous studies-longer acclimation periods do not necessarily lead to site fidelity. Finally, our findings demonstrate the importance of tracking a large proportion of reintroduced individuals to (1) accurately record post-release behaviors and vital rates, and (2) adaptively evaluate pre-and post-release management actions to improve conservation outcomes.

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“…Today, survival of this species relies on captive breeding (East, 1999) and the entire global population is estimated between 15,000 and 19,000 head (Woodfine & Gilbert, 2016), distributed in 444 institutions across 48 countries. Trophy hunting ranches in Texas, United…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foot‐and‐mouth disease outbreaks in captive scimitar‐horned oryx ( Oryx dammah )

Lignereux

Chaber

Saegerman

et al. 2020

Transbound Emerg Dis

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This paper describes three episodes of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) that were detected during 2013-2015 in scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah) (SHO), a large Sahelo-Saharan antelope extinct in the wild housed in a wild ungulate breeding facility located 50 km east of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. While no mortality attributable to FMD was noted in the population of nearly 4,000 SHO during two of the three outbreaks, the morbidity varied according to the circulating strains and seroconversion reached a plateau of 78.0% within two weeks and remained at this level for at least nine months. Partial or complete sequencing of the VP1 encoding region demonstrated that the three outbreaks were caused by three different FMDV lineages (O/ME-SA/PanAsia-2, A/ASIA/Iran-05 and O/ME-SA/Ind-2001), consistent with FMD viruses that are circulating elsewhere in the region. These findings demonstrate that SHO are susceptible to FMD and highlight the risks of virus incursion into zoos and captive facilities in the Arabian Peninsula.

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The Fall and Rise of the Scimitar‐Horned Oryx

Cited by 11 publications

References 28 publications

Chromosomal‐level genome assembly of the scimitar‐horned oryx: Insights into diversity and demography of a species extinct in the wild

Chromosomal‐level genome assembly of the scimitar‐horned oryx: Insights into diversity and demography of a species extinct in the wild

Management Background and Release Conditions Structure Post-release Movements in Reintroduced Ungulates

Foot‐and‐mouth disease outbreaks in captive scimitar‐horned oryx ( Oryx dammah )

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