Once on the brink of extinction, there are now 600 Arabian Oryx, living in the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary of the Sultanate, Dr. Mansour bin Hamad Al Jahdami, director of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Arabian Oryx of the Office of Conservation of the Environment of the Royal Court said.

The Arabian Oryx can be found in the plains of the Sultanate since the beginning of history due to the presence of a pastoral environment and wildlife suited to its life and because it has found a safe haven for breeding. 

In the pre-1970’s, a group of people went to the plains where the Arabian Oryx had built their habitat and hunted them down in the absence of any deterrents and without pity for the wildlife. There were no strict laws to prevent them from hunting at the time.

Fortunately, in the early 1970s the international environmental conservation organisations of the time (Fauna and Flora International in the United Kingdom) launched a campaign to capture the Arabian Oryx from the wild as they predicted their extinction in case of non-intervention, which actually happened after nearly a decade.

The world campaign succeeded in capturing four heads of the Arabian Oryx and sent them for reproduction with the world herd, which was collected from the Arab countries to a park in the United States. In the last quarter of the 70s decade, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said ordered the initiation of a project to resettle the Arabian Oryx in its native habitat in the desert and the plains of the Governorate of Al Wusta of the Sultanate, where the first batch of Arabian Oryx arrived in 1980. At that time, Jeddat Al Harasis (Wadi Ja’aloni) was the site chosen for the project to resettle the Arabian Oryx and for the establishment of the “Arabian Oryx Sanctuary.”

There is no doubt that the selection of the site for the sanctuary is important as it contains plains and prairies that are appropriate for the nature of the Arabian Oryx and its reproduction as the original and natural area of its spread in the Sultanate. After all these efforts, the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was listed in the World Heritage List by the UNESCO. The Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was named the first natural reserve in Oman after the Royal Decree No. 4/94.

In an interview with the Oman News Agency (ONA), Dr. Mansour bin Hamad Al Jahdami, director of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Arabian Oryx of the Office of Conservation of the Environment of the Royal Court said the Arabian Oryx has lived in the desert and plains of the Sultanate since ancient times. It is one of the Arabian animals known to man on the peninsula and poems have been written about them, comparing their beauty to that of women and they are spread throughout the Sultanate and several Arab Peninsula countries, such as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar. They are also present in Egypt and Jordan.

As for the efforts of the Office of Environment Conservation to preserve the wildlife in the Sultanate, Al Jahdami added that there are 600 Arabian Oryx, living within the breeding grounds and families in the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary, with plans to take care of them according to a comprehensive programme and veterinary care of these herds and in order to ensure that they continue to remain in good health and to prepare them to be fit for living in the desert of the Sultanate for the stage of future release.

He further said the Office of Environment Conservation has benefited from its efforts and its successful programmes, represented in the breeding of the Arabian Oryx in the Omani plains and deserts, after the first flock of Arabian Oryx was released and grown in numbers and are roaming freely in the wilderness.

Al Jahdami pointed out that the most important plans and objectives of the Office of the Conservation of the Environment in the future is to release the Arabian Oryx held captive in the large sanctuary to nature, to live there safely and without human obstacles. There are tourism programmes to attract tourists from inside and outside the Sultanate for tours to the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary and to watch wildlife in the Sultanate.

He further said there is currently a programme for groups and individuals visiting the sanctuary after obtaining permission to enter the sanctuary from the office in Muscat to watch the wildlife there.

Source: Timesofoman