AFRICAN INDABA

8    Al Ain's Oryx May Hold Key to Breeding Program

Emmanuelle Landais, Gulf News (edited)

A four-day summit at the Al Ain Wildlife Park and Resort Headquarters in Al Ain, aims to develop a conservation strategy to revive the population. Tim Wacher, a wildlife biologist with the London Zoological Society's Conservation Programs, believes the scimitar-horned oryx of the Gulf hold massive potential and experts are confident that the population at the Al Ain Wildlife Park and Resort will be able to repopulate areas where this now near-extinct antelope used to roam. However, genetics will play a big part to determine whether the large herd of 200 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. Scimitar horned oryx are not naturally found in the wild anymore. 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. 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.

"Ideally we hope the oryx here have independent lineages to the managed populations," Wacher said. Wacher has spent more than 20 years directly involved in arid land conservation including 8 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. 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," Wacher 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."

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 releasing 30 to 50 in a particular site [and] another 20 the next year and another 20 the year after," said Wacher. Projects such as these are very much over the long term, as much as 20 years. 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. "We have to see what the results are; 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. "There are four fenced areas varying in size from 2,000 to 6,000 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.