Zoo-born oryx part of saving species
Baby is 240th calf to be delivered in Phoenix program
When Phoenix Zoo employees checked on a pregnant Arabian oryx last week, they quickly noticed something awry.
“We saw mom right away, and her belly looked a little smaller,” said Michelle Hatwood, one of the animal managers at the zoo. “We looked in the whole exhibit, and we saw (the newborn calf) in the back corner, hiding.”
An oryx, a type of antelope from the Middle East, faced extinction in the 1960s. The Phoenix Zoo bred the animals in captivity and helped save the species. The birth marks the 240th oryx born at the zoo.
The newborn oryx was walking within the first half-hour and running within the first hour, a trait oryx need in the wild since other animals prey on them, Hatwood said.
“In their natural habitat, other animals, like lions, can potentially eat them,” she said.
The newborn will stay with the other oryx at the exhibit, allowing for “the most natural upbringing as possible,” she said.
Zoo veterinarians expect at least one other oryx birth this summer. They planned the births to “diversify the gene pool as much as possible” of the current herd of 22 oryx at the zoo, veterinarian Julie Swenson said.
Oryx numbers dwindle
Newborn oryx weigh about 13 pounds and are light tan, but their coats turn white with black markings on the face as they age, Hatwood said.
Adults are about 40 inches high at the shoulder and their two horns curve toward the back and appear to fuse into a single horn, prompting theories the animal inspired the myth of the unicorn.
The oryx once roamed most of the Arabian peninsula, the Sinai peninsula, Israel, Jordan and Iraq, but centuries of hunting and destruction of their habitat cut their numbers drastically. The animal’s “meat and hide were prized, as were its lengthy horns,” according to the zoo.
The search began for a suitable place to raise a captive herd.
In 1962, biologists chose Phoenix to breed the desertdwelling animal, whose native hot and dry landscape is similar
JOSEPH BECKER to the Sonoran Desert.
“Operation Oryx” brought the first nine oryx to Phoenix in 1963. By mid-1964, what came to be known as the “the World Herd” had grown to 11 animals.
Conservation efforts
By 1972, the Arabian oryx were considered extinct in the wild. The Phoenix Zoo began reintroducing the captive-bred oryx to Jordan in 1978, according to zoo spokeswoman Linda Hardwick.
Today, there are 1,200 oryx in the wild, mostly in protected areas. An additional 6,000 live in zoos, wildlife facilities and sanctuaries around the world, Hardwick said.
Because of conservation efforts by the Phoenix Zoo and other organizations, the oryx are no longer considered endangered, Swenson said.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2011 changed the antelope’s status from “endangered” — facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild — to “vulnerable” — facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
Despite the upgraded status, the zoo continues to work in partnership with Jordan’s Shaumari Wildlife Reserve in the Eastern Desert or Badia region of the country.
The Phoenix team has made two trips, in 2010 and 2011, and plans on making more, Swenson said.
“We’re basically sharing our experience. Some of our recommendations they’ll be able to implement directly,” Swenson said.
Swenson made her first trip in 2010 to the reserve in Jordan. That visit “was about touching base, looking up the genetic makeup of the oryx,” she said.
The Phoenix team took DNA samples to verify the oryx were descendants of the Phoenix herd and to find out how many branches of the family tree have developed, since genetic diversity is crucial for longterm survival. Swenson and other Phoenix staff returned to Jordan to train workers.
The Phoenix Zoo has been developing a partnership with the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in Jordan, which oversees the oryx program in Jordan and Syria.
“There are no free-range wild oryx in Jordan,” Swenson said. “All the oryx are on protected lands on the reserves.”