The Biology, Husbandry and Conservation Scimitar-horned Oryx ...

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Part 1: Biology & Conservation
2. the destruction of tree cover as an important resource for oryx, as they spend much of their day
lying in the shade in a bid to conserve water (Newby, 1980).
3. Direct competition with livestock. Domestic animals tend to remain close to the waterholes,
and deprive wild ungulates of their traditional dry-season pastures. The oryx are forced out of
the best pastures and onto poor or marginal lands (Newby, 1980).
4. Proximity to human settlements. The permanent presence of nomads brought the oryx into
much closer contact with people, and so increased the opportunities for hunting (Newby,
1988).
Drought
Drought has serious biological consequences and recent episodes resulted in the disappearance of
ephemeral pastures that scimitar-horned oryx relied on. Without them, they cannot build sufficient
fat reserves to see them through the hot, dry months (Wakefield, 1992). In addition to the risk of
starvation, drought weakens the immune system making animals more susceptible to disease and
parasites, as well as causing them to abandon new-born calves (Newby, 1978a, 1980). The worst
impact on numbers can be observed when drought is coupled with hunting. The animals, already
weakened by the drought, tire faster and are more susceptible to heat exhaustion (Newby, 1980).
Chronic droughts will either kill the animals outright, or force them to adopt their traditional
coping mechanism of migration. However, this forced scimitar-horned oryx into areas where they
came into conflict with humans (Dixon et al., 1991; Newby, 1978a).
War and Political Instability
Political instability and war have contributed to the decline of scimitar-horned oryx in the wild
(Barzdo, 1982; Gordon, 1991). The most notable example of this was seen in Chad, when the
conservation work at the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve, the world’s last stronghold of
scimitar-horned oryx, had to be abandoned in 1978 (Wakefield, 1995b). Subsequently, the
scimitar-horned oryx became extinct in the wild.
Measures to Conserve Scimitar-horned Oryx
International protection
• Scimitar-horned oryx are listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), also referred to as the Washington
Convention. This means that commercial trade in this species is strictly prohibited, however
trade may occur for scientific research (CITES, 2002).
• Scimitar-horned oryx are protected under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory
Species of Wild Animals, otherwise known as the Bonn Convention or CMS. The Convention
came into force on the 1 st of November 1983, and as of September 2002, it had 80 signatories.
Scimitar-horned oryx are listed under Appendix I, Resolution 3.2, paragraph four, and are
given strict protection by the convention (UNEP, 2002).
• Scimitar-horned oryx are listed in Class B of the African Convention on the Conservation of
Nature and Natural Resources (1968). Under the convention scimitar-horned oryx are totally
protected, but may be hunted, killed or captured or collected under special authorisation
granted by the ‘Competent Authority’ (UNEP, 2003).