Oryx released into sprawling Abu Dhabi protected reserve Once hunted to near-extinction, today there are more than 5,000 of the animals in Abu Dhabi alone
With the opening of the gates, 14 Arabian oryx were released at the 308-square-kilometre Qasr Al Sarab Protected Area at the edge of the Empty Quarter.
Reintroduced to the wild, they will now live at the edge of a 650,000-square-kilometre desert that stretches across the Arabian Peninsula to Yemen.
Wednesday’s release at the desert resort was attended by a handful of delegates.
Such is the animal’s prominence in Arabic poetry, some jokingly recited verse about the oryx as they waited for the stocky antelope to emerge from the pen before the herd ran off into the dunes.
The release was part of the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Arabian Oryx Reintroduction Programme led by the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.
Once hunted to near-extinction and absent from the dunes of the Emirates, today there are more than 5,000 oryx in the emirate of Abu Dhabi alone.
Critical to its future has been the establishment of 13 protected areas in the emirate, comprising 15.5 per cent of its land. The largest is the Arabian Oryx Protected Area east of Liwa, founded in 2007 with 98 oryx. Covering 6,000 square kilometres, it is now home to a population of 835 oryx.
“To have protected areas is very good on paper, but we actually want them to come alive, and they only come alive with animals and with plants,” said Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, the agency’s secretary general, at the release.
“The Arabian oryx is an iconic species, it’s one of the largest antelopes we protect here at the environment agency and therefore we are very fortunate that we are able to return this animal from captivity into the wilderness, and into a protected area.”
The Arabian oryx has a home range of 30km and can recognise rainfall from great distances. It roams thousands of kilometres over its lifetime.
“We consider this when we design our protected areas,” said Khaldoun Al Omari, the section manager of terrestrial protection area management at the agency. “We have managed to established a very big network of protected areas, the largest in the region.”
The Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, Noura Al Kaabi, said it was a fitting tribute to the country’s founding President, Sheikh Zayed, noting the oryx’s prominence in Arab literature, art and poetry. “Sheikh Zayed was also a poet and for him as a desert man, he believed that it’s not just about developing progress of buildings but everything around us, from people to beautiful animals of the desert,” said the minister at the release.
Its beauty once attracted the attention of hunters.
The story goes that the last wild Arabian oryx was believed to have been shot in 1972.
The oryx had already come into the spotlight in the early 1960s, when the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona established a breeding programme with 11 oryx.
Known as the “world herd”, their descendants were to populate the Shaumari Wildlife Reserve in Jordan, and, eventually, reserves in the Emirates.
In 2011, the Arabian oryx was upgraded on the International Union for Conservation of Nature list from endangered to vulnerable. The 12 females and two males of this Qasr Al Sarab herd were bred at Delaija, one of the country’s two holding facilities.
To ease their transition to the wild, the herd were kept in pre-release pens at the site and will have food and water available. It is hoped their release at Anatara’s Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort will foster an appreciation of nature and instil responsibility in the public.
“We people want to feel the importance of this species by being exposed to it,” Mr Al Omari said. “We want them to be partners in the protection efforts of this important species, not to disturb it or encroach on its privacy.
“It is a wild animal and we are counting on the offspring being wild.”