Rare antelope returns to Africa

Rare antelope returns to Africa

An antelope that has been extinct in nature is returning to Africa. The scimitar-horned oryx horns were sold as unicorn horns in the Middle Ages.

Bent-horned antelopes are the largest mammals extinct in the wild in the past 20 years. But last year, 25 crooked antelopes were released in Chad, and this spring, three small antelopes were added to them.

Bent-horned antelope is a desert animal with a unique long, straight head and horn. It once appeared in Mauritania and Morocco in the west, and in Egypt and Sudan in the east. Due to lack of hunting control, drought and habitat loss, this antelope herd was extinct in the wild in the 1980s. It is estimated that there are currently 6,000 curly-horned antelopes raised artificially.

The release of these antelopes is the result of the joint efforts of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) and the Chad Government's Scimitar-horned Oryx Reintroduction Program.

Steve Monfort, director of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, said: "Restoration of wild sword antelope will have an impact on the conservation and management of the entire Sahelian grassland ecosystem. A huge and positive impact."

Before the antelope flock returned to nature, each antelope was put on a GPS positioning collar and was tracked and monitored by scientists from the Smithsonian Institute of Conservation Biology and Zoological Society of London. Hunters trained by EAD and the Sahara Conservation Fund are responsible for monitoring the antelope colony in Chad.

John Newby, CEO of the Sahara Conservation Foundation, said the current plan is to regularly introduce new antelopes in order to "reach viable numbers in the next three to four years."

The return of antelopes to nature is one of the fruits of the Smithsonian Institution's celebration of the "Earth Optimism" held in conjunction with Earth Day on April 22.