Al Ain: Experts are confident that the population of scimitar horned oryx at the Al Ain Wildlife Park and Resort will be able to repopulate areas where this now near-extinct antelope used to roam.
Genetics will play a big part to determine whether the large herd of 200 scimitar-horned oryx in Al Ain will be able to provide fresh lineage to mix with a smaller herd in Tunisia which will eventually be released into the wild in southern Sahara.
Tim Wacher, a wildlife biologist with the Zoological Society of London's Conservation Programmes, believes the oryx of the Gulf hold massive potential.
Independent lineage
"Ideally we hope the oryx here have independent lineages to the managed populations," he said.
Wacher has spent more than 20 years directly involved in arid land conservation including eight years involved in gazelle and oryx reintroduction in Saudi Arabia, and extensive field experience working in wildlife conservation in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Niger and Chad.
A four-day summit which took place this week at the Al Ain Wildlife Park and Resort Headquarters in Al Ain aims to develop a conservation strategy to revive the population.
"Scimitar horned oryx are not naturally found in the wild but we are hopeful the animals here will be able to be part of the project to restore them in their natural range," said Wacher.
In North Africa, countries have much fewer resources and space to develop any kind of animal release and management scheme but the southern Sahara has more potential for receiving oryx that could be released in the wild.
"The land is there to do it. The ideal would be to assemble the best range of animals which could include the oryx that are here in the UAE," he said. "Everything outside the Gulf came from one capture in Chad from 44 animals. In the Gulf they came from a different source and will have different genes to enrich the existing population in good health."
Wacher is currently working on a series of wildlife surveys across the Sahelo-Saharan region to be conducted in the coming year with the Sahara Conservation Fund. He is also a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Reintroduction Specialist Group and Antelope Specialist Groups.
Research on the herd in Al Ain could take up to 18 months during which DNA and health tests will be carried out on the oryx. "We are looking to scan a large number of animals to compare with the herd in Tunisia. There are more here than anywhere else. A realistic approach means we would start with [releasing] 30 to 50 in a particular site but best practices would see another 20 added the next year and another 20 the year after," said Wacher.
The demise of the scimitar horned oryx has been mainly caused by the spread of human activity, the introduction of four- wheel drives and automatic weapons. In just 50 years, the population of oryx went from herds of 100,000 to zero, he said.
Projects such as these are very much over the long term, as much as 20 years.
"We have to see what are the results, we don't just open the gate and let them go. There is fairly regular monitoring within a fenced area. It is long term because the desert is a long term place," said Wacher.
The animal translocation process involves monitoring them post release but also has benefits for the community at large by restoring habitat biodiversity in the area.
"There are four fenced areas varying in size from 2,000 to 6,000 hectares. The range would have been up to 50,000 hectares so it is an artificial situation but a lot of that habitat has been recovered," said Wacher, highlighting the recovery of Acacia trees in some areas.
