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Scimitar-horned oryx

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Scimitar-horned Oryx (say sim-it-ah horned o-rix)
Scimitar-horned oryx have long, curved horns.
They used to live in deserts in Africa.

 


Scimitar-horned oryx
Taxonomy Oryx dammah [Cretzschmar, 1827]. Citation: In Rüppell, Atlas Reise Nordl. Afr., Zool., Säugheth., p. 22. Type locality: Sudan, Haraza, "probably Kordofan."
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Fun Fact:
Scimitar-horned oryx have an interesting way of coping with a shortage of water. They are able to raise their body temperature by several degrees, up to 116 degrees Fahrenheit, to conserve water by avoiding sweating.
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Scimitar-horned oryx once inhabited the arid borders of the Sahara desert. Because of overhunting, the last wild oryx observed was seen in the late 1980's.

Scimitar-horned oryx are gregarious. They are found in herds whose size constantly changes, depending on the size of the patches of vegetation they are feeding on.

Scimitar-horned oryx
Class: Mammalia
Status: Endangered
Siberian Tiger ...

The scimitar-horned oryx has been reintroduced in Tunisia (East, 1996), and might still occasionally wander into Burkina Faso , Mali and Sudan , but all these data need confirmation.

Many types of oryxes (including the Arabian oryx and the scimitar-horned oryx) are endangered species, mostly because of overhunting and disease.

European bison (Bison bonasus)
Dama gazelle (Nanger dama)
Greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros)
Saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis)
Scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah)
Wild goat (Capra aegagrus)
Common eland (Tragelaphus oryx) ...

Scimitar-horned oryx, Sahara oryx
Once numerous around the Sahara desert, this pale horse-like antelope with a reddish chest and curved horns was nearly hunted to extinction.
Sea otter ...

See also: Oryx, Antelope, Gazelle, Cheetah, Elephant