Back from the brink: How the UAE is working to repopulate endangered wildlife

The Arabian oryx, the largest land mammal native to the Arabian peninsula, has adapted to the harsh desert terrain in fascinating ways.

It can detect rainfall and fresh plant growth from up to 90km, for example, and it has a circulation system in its head that helps it stay cool, according to the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi.

Despite these protective biological responses, the desert antelope, also known as the white oryx, was hunted to the verge of extinction by the 1970s, when it was declared extinct in the wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It was prized for its meat and hide, and habitat loss due to construction and development made survival difficult.

When that happened, UAE Founding Father of the UAE, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, a well-known lover of animals and nature, launched conservation efforts that have since brought this species back to life.

President Sheikh Mohamed introduced the Arabian Oryx Reintroduction Programme in 2007, helping it to become the first animal to revert to vulnerable status after previously being listed as extinct in the wild.

Today, the UAE is home to the largest population of Arabian oryx in the world, with more than 10,000 animals living predominantly around protected areas in Abu Dhabi.

This is only one – and possibly the most famous – of the UAE’s success stories in wildlife repopulation, as hundreds of people across the country continue to work tirelessly to protect the environment, not only on the ground, but also further afield.

Large-mammal reintroduction

Most recently, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, which was established in 1996 by a small group of ecologists passionate about continuing Sheikh Zayed’s legacy, launched one of the world’s biggest large-mammal reintroduction programmes in Chad.

The agency’s team released for the first time six Dama gazelles into the Ouadi Rime – Ouadi Achim Wildlife Reserve this year.

The Dama gazelle is classified by the IUCN as critically endangered, with only about 100 animals remaining in the wild in Chad and Niger.

It is on the verge of extinction and the agency's efforts aim to preserve and increase wild herd numbers in its natural habitats, in collaboration with Sahara Conservation, the Zoological Society of London, and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

The project began in 2019 with a captive breeding programme, when five wild gazelles were captured in the Manga region and other areas of the wildlife reserve in Chad.

They were then transported to enclosures for breeding, where they were kept with other Dama gazelles from the agency’s wildlife conservation centres in the UAE and central Africa.

Those that were released in May are from two groups: one wild and the other bred in captivity. Three are equipped with satellite tracking devices, so the team can monitor the animals’ progress in the reserve, which is now home to about 50 gazelles.

“The post-release monitoring of gazelles will help us provide detailed information about the reproduction and mortality rates of these animals,” explained Ahmed Al Hashmi, executive director of the terrestrial and marine biodiversity sector at the environment agency.

“It also provides a unique opportunity to closely monitor wild Dama gazelles and to identify factors that limit their reproduction.

“This, in turn, will support this gazelle species in the long term.”

The story of the scimitar-horned oryx

The Dama gazelle project follows the successful reintroduction programmes for the scimitar-horned oryx, also known as the Sahara oryx, and the addax antelope in Chad.

The scimitar-horned oryx was once widespread across North Africa, but in 2000 was declared extinct in the wild, primarily because of poaching.

Fourteen years later, a reintroduction programme founded under the directive of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, Ruler's Representative in Al Dhafra region and chairman of the board of directors of the agency, was launched and in 2016 the first shipment of animals was released back into the wild.

The following year, a herd of 75 animals arrived at the Ouadi Rime – Ouadi Achim Wildlife Reserve, in collaboration with the Chad Ministry of Environment and Fisheries, and the Sahara Conservation Fund.

Since then, the agency has been able to increase herd numbers to more than 630, exceeding the original target of 500, with the species downgraded to endangered by the IUCN in December.

Dr Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, secretary general of agency, said the reclassification was a significant conservation milestone, but also beneficial to the community through capacity building, raising awareness and the hiring of local people.

“[It is] not the end of our collective efforts,” she said at the time.

“One of the elements that contributed to our success was the experience we gained from our successful reintroduction programme of the Arabian oryx in Abu Dhabi.

"We realised that once we were successful within the UAE, then we should go beyond its borders.”

The challenges of repopulation

Mr Al Hashmi said reintroducing species is a delicate balancing act that is rife with challenges.

“People believe if you have an animal and you want to introduce it, it’s very easy,” he told The National.

“But it requires a huge [amount of] science, information and experience.”

It was thanks to the foresight of Sheikh Zayed that they were even able to get these projects off the ground in the first place, Mr Al Hashmi said, as the agency inherited the late leader’s collection of animals.

“He used to have this collection because during his travels he saw many animals, like the scimitar-horned oryx, being poached severely. He had a small population, and he said 'with the current scenario, these animals will soon no longer exist'" said Mr Al Hashmi.

“So, what we did was we reproduced those animals together, but it’s not easy to do, because after 30 years in captivity, those animals are so vulnerable and their behaviour is changed and their body will be so weak, so you need genetic diversity.”

The agency worked with international partners in Europe and the US to import animals and cross-breed them until it could assure high genetic diversity and know the animal was ready for release.

“We kept testing [scimitar-horned oryx] behaviour in Abu Dhabi and then we built another enclosure area in Chad, just to ensure those animals will learn how to feed.”

A whole ecosystem

Location is key to these repopulation efforts, as, if the wrong place is chosen to release captive-bred animals, they will not survive. The conservation teams must also replant suitable vegetation for food and shelter.

All of this requires collaborative efforts, Mr Al Hashmi emphasised.

It takes several countries working together to ensure a sustainable repopulation programme. Oman and Jordan have been heavily involved in the agency’s efforts to boost Arabian oryx populations, for example.

"We want to assure this animal is back everywhere … then we will have a great international story," he said.

Moving forward, the agency plans to keep focusing on its repopulation efforts and it is hoping the Arabian oryx will soon be relisted by the IUCN as “least concern”.

But Mr Al Hashmi couldn’t put a timeframe on when this might happen.

“The difficult part with nature is to set very specific goals, because you don't control the ecosystem," he said.

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