Arabian Oryx, a magnificent creature that I really love, according to some historians the myth of the fabled one-horned creature, the unicorn may have started with the Arabian oryx, when the oryx is looked at from side, it appears as if it has one large horn on its head. For thousands of years these creatures were hunted as shown in cave drawings, and the hunt for these creatures kept on going on and on with the widely spread basic hunting weapons known to people at the time, till the beginning of the twentieth century, sophisticated methods of hunting weapons came in use, hunting firearms were used by humans and the Arabian Oryxes were hunted more frequently than ever before, resulting in its gradual extinction from the wild in Arabia and by the year 1972, it was completely extinct in the middle east.
In 1982 Many countries attempted to reintroduce the oryx to the Arabian wild and Oman was the very first to begin with this initiative, and dedicating a vast park for oryxes in Al-Wusta region, naming it the "Oryx Sanctuary" and brought the first herd from San Diego Safari Park. This was very successful and their numbers started growing over the years, oryx numbers reached its peak in Oman in 1996, 450 oryxes, here is the sad part and really saddens me, the numbers of the oryxes started dwindling again over the years because of poaching and illegal hunting, their numbers dropped down to 65 in 2007, later the Omani government announced plans to prospect for oil in the region and thus reducing 90% of the the original oryx sanctuary size.
I've met a person once who bragged about hunting down an oryx, and when I asked him if he's aware that these animals are endangered, he said he feels guilty for doing so but then started talking about the hunting experience and what was it like, like if its an achievement of sort; there is no limit to the stupidity of mankind. and unfortunately there is no cure for stupidity.
But to end on a bright note, in 2011 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced that the Arabian oryx population has exceeded 1000, in reservations located in Bahrain, Qatar and UAE, and the IUCN no longer considers the Arabian Oryx “endangered” and has been taken off that list to a less-serious category which is “vulnerable”. According to the IUCN this is the very first time a species that was previously classified as extinct in the wild has improved to such extent. :)
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