Reintroducing Chad's most iconic animal
The scimitar-horned oryx was classified as
'Extinct in the Wild' in 2000
Until the late 1970s, the scimitar-horned oryx and other desert animals such as the dama gazelle, ostrich and addax
antelope, thrived in Chad’s Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve, one of the world’s largest protected areas at over
78,000km².
However, in the early 1980s there was a period of extended civil unrest, leading to a devastating decline in oryx
numbers from overhunting. By the late 1990s, the species was believed to have gone extinct in the wild after the last
remaining individuals in Chad and neighbouring Niger died out. Since then, the species has only existed in captivity.
Following the creation of a genetically-robust 'Global Herd', bred from captive populations from around the world, two reintroductions have been made so far.
The first, a release of 21 oryx in 2016, gave rise to the first wild birth of a scimitar-horned oryx in the wild since the 1980s.
A second group of 14 oryx
was released in 2017, followed by an impressive 75 more in 2018. There have now been more than 30 wild births detected, taking the coalition closer to their goal of having
500 oryx living wild in Chad.