Two scimitar oryx, extinct in the wild, born at Artis Zoo
Two baby scimitar oryx were born at Artis Zoo in the past weeks. The two lambs are doing well and are now walking with the rest of the herd and their mothers, the zoo said on Tuesday. A third lamb, unfortunately, died after the bird.
The scimitar oryx is one of 84 animal and plant species considered “extinct in the wild” by the IUCN. That means that the only known living members of these species are in captivity. Artis has contributed to the European species conservation program for 60 years to help these animals and plants from dying out completely.
Artis moved the scimitar oryx to the new enclosure next to the main entrance last year. They share the enclosure with the meerkats. The two babies are doing well there, animal caretaker Danny Sopjes said. “We found both lambs completely dry and licked clean shortly after birth, which is a good sign of the bond between the mothers and their young. While they were still wobbling on their feet, the meerkats gathered around the young scimitar oryx curiously and inquisitively.”
“The lambs stayed away from the herd for a while to rest and strengthen the mother-young bond. You can see how quickly they grow and get stronger by looking at the oldest lamb, which is now four weeks old. The young are independent and no longer dependent on their mother after about 14 weeks,” Sopjes said.
The scimitar oryx, also called the Sahara oryx, are characterized by their curved, long horns and sandy, light skin that help them blend in with the desert and savannah landscape of North Africa. They were once one of the most common large mammals in North Africa, with hundreds of thousands of the animals living in the area from Morocco to Egypt.
The scimitar oryx population quickly dwindled in the 20th century due to overhunting for their horns, meat, and skin and a sharp increase in livestock farming in their habitats. The last wild scimitar oryx was seen in the late 1980s, according to Artis. At the time, there were only about 8,000 of these animals in zoos, safari parks, and private ownership worldwide.
