When data meets myth: the phoenix-like rebirth of the legendary unicorn

For many centuries, travellers to distant India who crossed Arabia brought back stories of a mythical one-horned beast, the pure and magical unicorn. The animal most likely to have led to this legend is the Arabian Oryx, the most elegant of all antelopes. When seen in profile, its long, ramrod-straight horns can seem to merge into one, giving its silhouette a shape familiar from medieval European manuscripts.

Once shrouded in mystery, the Oryx more recently became a target for less benevolent travellers: those who like to hunt using modern weapons. Herds quickly collapsed. The last wild animal was shot about forty years ago. The species has been classified as ‘extinct in the wild’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since the early 1970’s.

The story that follows is unique in the history of wildlife management. A successful captive breeding programme was initiated by His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late founder of the UAE. It included a massive reintroduction effort, the designation of huge areas as protected zones, and careful stewardship of budding herds.

The work led to the species' rebirth. The UAE today is home to 3,000 Arabian Oryx, over half of the world’s population. Of these, 2,000 live in Abu Dhabi. For Her Excellency Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, the Secretary General of Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, "to have brought the Arabian Oryx back from the brink of extinction is a major feat and a true conservation success story, one which we hope will be repeated many times over for other threatened species. It is a classic example of how data from the IUCN red list can feed into on-the-ground conservation action to deliver tangible and successful results."

Animals were selected for reintroduction from captive herds. Choosing the right reintroduction site demanded a careful evaluation of the carrying capacity of various candidate areas. The site chosen is huge (almost twice the area of Delaware) but, like most of Abu Dhabi, it is extremely arid.

Because the Oryx is so rare, traditional methods for herd management (i.e. culling) must be avoided. In these circumstances, restoring the population to a robust state means taking dozens of factors into account, from the estimated foraging area each animal needs to the optimal mix of males and females from different breeding stocks to optimise genetic diversity.

Data has been crucial to this success. The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) developed a range of data acquisition and evaluation tools to draw a habitat map based on land surveys and Landsat-TM satellite imagery, carry out a genetic analysis of the animals, and monitor the herds' movements through GPS/GSM collars. This allowed the programme managers to take into account issues such as the impact on the animal’s social structure of the evolving male/female ratios (older males tend to monopolise the females, which lowers genetic diversity).

On 16 June 2011, the IUCN moved the animal from the "endangered" category to the lessserious status of "vulnerable". It is the first time a species that was once classified as extinct in the wild has improved its fortunes to such an extent, the IUCN says. The animal’s phoenixlike resuscitation is now considered the world’s most successful conservation programme.