{"id":34613,"date":"2023-12-14T14:15:15","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T13:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/86d7e503-9984-4b64-a9ea-bc5c729dbb56"},"modified":"2023-12-14T14:35:43","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T13:35:43","slug":"mythical-looking-scimitar-horned-oryx-brought-back-from-extinction","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/mythical-looking-scimitar-horned-oryx-brought-back-from-extinction\/","title":{"rendered":"Mythical-looking scimitar-horned oryx brought back from extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Declared Extinct in the Wild in 2000, the North African scimitar-horned oryx is now re-established in its native homeland thanks to long-term conservation efforts. <\/p>

By Daniel Graham\n <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 14 December 2023 at 13:15 PM<\/p>

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A ghostly white coat, deep, dark eyes and huge, curved horns. The scimitar-horned oryx has an almost mythical appearance. Indeed, were it not for long-term conservation efforts, this majestic wanderer of North Africa’s sun-baked deserts may well have drifted quietly into folklore.<\/p>

Once common across Tunisia, Chad and Niger, scimitar-horned oryx experienced rapid population declines in the latter part of the 20th century due to over-hunting, persistent droughts and competition with livestock. They disappeared from the wild altogether by the end of the 1990s and the species was officially declared Extinct in the Wild in 2000.<\/p>

This desert-dwelling member of the antelope family remained absent from the wild for nearly 20 years. But over this two-decade period, conservationists around the world were hard at work, determined not to let the species slip into legend.<\/p>