scimitar oryx

Medium-sized oryx Oryx dammah. Its startling, swept-back horns have made it a prime target for hunters. It was once found over virtually the whole of the Sahel. Numbers started to decline sharply in the 1950s and the animals were reduced to scattered groups by the 1970s, then reached the edge of extinction by the 1980s. The initial cause of decline was the destruction of grasslands, but savage hunting annihilated the remainder. There are captive breeding herds and plans to reintroduce the species in Tunisia.