News
Rare mammal makes public appearance
View(s):
New born Arabian Oryx with its mother. Pix by M A Pushpa Kumara
By Kasun Warakapitiya
Visitors to the Dehiwela zoo can now catch a glimpse of a newborn Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx), at the Dehiwela zoo.
The Director General at the National Zoological Gardens, Chandana Rajapaksa told the Sunday Times that the oryx was exhibited one month after birth.
“This is not the first birth of an Oryx at the zoo. We have them at our Hambantota Safari park as well as our zoo at Pinnawala. But each birth of these animals is important as this is a species which went extinct in the wild and was re-introduced via captive population,” he said,
According to him the Arabian Oryx became extinct in the wild in 1972 but was re-introduced into the wild a decade later. The initial reintroduction was from herds at the Phoenix Zoo in 1963 from only nine Oryx and the Saudi Arabian herd started in 1986 from private collections and some Phoenix Zoo stock by the Saudi National Wildlife Research Center.
The animals had been reintroduced in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.
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