Arabian Oryx breeding programme victim of its own success

RAK reserve has been expanded to five times its original size and is now home to 43 oryx, 52 sand gazelle and 10 mountain gazelle.

Arabian Oryx at the Al Wadi desert reserve in Ras Al Khaimah. Due to the reserve's succesfull breeding programme the animals have now outgrown the available space. Antonie Robertson / The National

Ras Al Khaimah // A breeding programme for Arabian oryx and wild gazelle has been so successful that their populations are fast outgrowing the capacity of their nature reserve.

In 2009, eight Arabian oryx, eight mountain gazelle and eight sand gazelle were introduced to the 100-hectare Al Wadi nature reserve.

The reserve has since been expanded to five times its original size and is now home to 43 oryx, 52 sand gazelle and 10 mountain gazelle. Eight more oryx arrived in 2012.

“For the oryx and sand gazelle that’s very good growth,” said Ryan Ingram, director of the nature reserve. “It’s a success story in terms of breeding.”

The decision of Ras Al Khaimah’s royal family to donate extra land to the reserve and build a boundary fence in 2012 was “a big show of faith in the direction of conservation”, Mr Ingram said.

The success of breeding schemes such as the reserve’s, which is now part of Al Wadi Ritz-Carlton resort, has enabled the Arabian oryx to be taken off the list of vulnerable species. The major problem now is the lack of space.

“We are now at the point where we require more space for the herd to keep growing, otherwise we must relocate some of the population, as we are putting too much strain on the ecosystem,” Mr Ingram said.

Relocation is expensive, complicated and delicate. The best option is to expand.

“Relocation can only take place at certain times of the year and is very stressful for the animals,” Mr Ingram said.

David Mallon, a specialist on antelopes at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said overcrowding posed risks to the herd.

“Too high a density and they will probably fight, especially males if they are mixed in with females,” Mr Mallon said.

In 1972 the last wild Arabian oryx was killed by poachers in Oman. After extensive conservation efforts, the oryx’s status was deemed as endangered in 1982 until 2011 when it was rated as vulnerable on the union’s list of endangered species.

Greg Simkins, conservation manager of the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, which is home to about 450 oryx, said the park also had a problem with overcrowding.

“We’ve got to the point where we should have less oryx,” he said. “In 1999 and 2000, it was an endangered species and we needed to get them to breed. But now we are becoming victims of our own success.

“Overgrazing impacts the whole ecosystem. Everything is based on that primary food source, vegetation. The spiny tailed lizard is very dependent on it, rodents and small mammals suffer and they are the food supply of animals such as the foxes, owls and wild cats.”

Mr Simkins and Tamer Khafaga, a conservation and planning officer at the reserve, have nearly finished the UAE’s first study into how much land is required for oryx and gazelle.

They estimate that there is 100 hectares for each oryx. The Dubai reserve has 22,500 hectares.

Razan Al Mubarak, secretary general of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, said the success of the breeding schemes was testament to the long-term commitment that the UAE has shown since the 1960s.

The successful revival of oryx in the wild was “probably one of the success stories of the conservation movement of this decade”, said Mr Al Mubarak, who also manages the Emirates Wildlife Society.