The Arabian Oryx at the King Khaled Wildlife Research Centre in Saudi Arabia

Arranging a wildlife trip anywhere in the world can be a challenging enterprise, to do that in Saudi Arabia is almost an impossibility, especially if it requires the approval of Royalty as was the case to explore the breeding program of the previously extinct wild Arabian Oryx.

The "mission impossible" that I embarked upon was to arrange a visit to the King Khaled Wildlife Research Centre about 80 km northwest of the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The reason for embarking on this was to get a closer look at the previously extinct wild Arabian Oryx, which is bred here and was successfully reintroduced into the wild. The last wild Oryx died during 1972. Fortunately, there were a few in private Royal collections in Arabia and in the world herd in the US.

The private collections of the royals were discovered to contain some cross breeds and had to be purged before the breeding program could start.

When we first arrived in Saudi Arabia some time ago, one of the items high on my agenda was to see the Arabian Oryx, which I knew, lived on the Arabian Peninsula.

The easy part was getting the information about the King Khaled Wildlife Research Centre. The challenge started a few months before the visit when I tried to arrange the visit on my own.

My attempts to arrange the trip solo came to nothing. I did however get copies of the official forms (in Arabic) but that was it.

There are a number of internet sites that provides useful information, but none that can prepare you for the administrative nightmare that westerners are not used to. To actually get the trip arranged took more than a miracle. The first obvious obstacle is the language. In Saudi Arabia, all Government agencies only operate in Arabic.

In order to make the effort worth while I approached a number of my Western expatriate friends to join me. With the aide of our company's communications department the necessary forms were completed in Arabic and these eventually (the afternoon before we left) got the approval from the relevant authorities.

On the morning of the trip, we left Riyadh (on time, quite a rare event in Saudi Arabia) at 08:00 with the temperature outside already in the mid 30's. The air-conditioning worked overtime and we enjoyed a portable breakfast en-route. All the accolades go to our Saudi host, Ayman Basha, whose arrangement was exceptional. The Director of the Research Centre, a South African with a real passion for his work, Dr. Ernst Robinson welcomed us and provided a historical overview of the wildlife conservation efforts in Saudi Arabia.

The National Commission founded the King Khalid Wildlife Research Centre in 1987 for Wildlife Conservation and Development. The centre was given the mission of managing and breeding the private animal collection of the late King Khalid. This collection contained over 600 animals of 20 different species, including a number of valuable Arabian species. The animals were kept in a 600 ha enclosure on the King's ranch, Thumamah, which lies about 70 km north of Riyadh at the foot of the scenic Urumah escarpment. The centre contains a number of breeding pens. These breeding pens are arranged in a radial pattern around a centre hub.

Husbandry and management problems at the Centre necessitated the development of unique capture and restraint techniques to allow for TB testing, transfer of animals between enclosures and routine veterinary procedures on the breeding animals.

A free ranging population was established in 1989 when the King proclaimed the "Mahazat as-Sayd" Royal reserve and fenced a 2,700 square km area for the purpose. The breeding program was very successful and in 1995, another 12,000 square km reserve was declared at the western edge of the so-called "Empty Quarter". Because of good management and favourable seasons, the numbers soured and most conservationists viewed the program as a benchmark for reintroducing of extinct species back into the wild. Unfortunately, because of changing weather patterns in resent years around 1200 animals died and the research centre are working feverishly to prevent this in the future.

We were entertained by a trip around the breeding pens where we saw the allusive Arabian Oryx in all its glory. What a majestic animal.

The Oryx belongs to the Order Cetartiodactyla, the Family Bovidae and the sub-family Hippotragini, a sub-family of horse-like antelopes. While there are only three species of Oryx there are five distinct forms.

The well-known Gemsbok is the largest and weigh in at around 200kg while a large male Arabian Oryx might just reach 100kg. The small physical size of the Arabian Oryx was something that most of the group commented on during the visit, I guess we all expected to see a bigger animal. Herds of African Oryx species normally contain equal number of male and female animals while Arabian Oryx herds will rarely contain more than one male. This is causing a significant problem in the breeding program at the King Khaled Wildlife Research Centre as the Arabian Oryx produces three male calves for every female calf when bred in captivity.

We learned that the legend of the unicorn might have started, in part as least, from the Arabia Oryx. Apart from the silhouette that could have resulted in this, the Bible uses the Hebrew word re'em for Arabian Oryx and in the King James' version the word re'em is translated as "unicorn"

We also saw a number of other endangered species being protected and bred by the King Khaled Wildlife Research Centre. These include some rare desert antelope species, foxes, goats and wolves.

By the time we have seen what we came for it was close to midday. The outside temperature by now had soared to touch the 50's and everyone was glad that the air-conditioning was working well, or was it... all of a sudden heated air started filling the bus and the driver could not fix it. After a while, it was realized that he inadvertently switched on the heating and the situation was restored with the typical Saudi laughing and good spirit.

The general consensus on the bus was that it was a good trip and time well spent. Suggestions were made that another trip should be arranged to some of the wildlife parks in the county, but for now I will just relax and try to wrap my mind around this incredible effort that resulted in the successful reintroduction of the Arabian Oryx into its natural habitat.

© Carl Marx