The Arabian Oryx , which might have been the initial inspiration for the unicorn fable , has pulled off a comeback every bit as magical as its fabled vis-a-vis , becoming the first species to go from almost nonextant to not even endangered .
In 1972 , the last uncivilised Arabian Oryx was shot , leave the metal money ’s last survivors as strictly animal in captivity . The term for that is “ out in the wild ” , and it ’s often a end sentence for the species , as it can be very difficult to ever reintroduce captive creature back into the wild . But now , less than forty year afterward , there are over a thousand Arabian Oryx in the wild .
That ’s enough for the International Union for Conservation of Nature , or IUCN , to upgrade them from endangered – which is where they were lean after their last evaluation in 1986 – to vulnerable , which signify that they are no longer in serious danger of defunctness . This is the first prison term that ’s ever happened , and Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak , the director universal of Environmental Agency Abu Dhabi , celebrates this huge conservation victory :
“ To have brought the Arabian Oryx back from the verge of extinction is a major exploit and a true conservation achiever story , one which we hope will be repeated many times over for other threatened species . It is a classic exemplar of how data point from the IUCN Red List can feed into on - the - ground preservation action to deliver palpable and successful results . ”
As for how the Arabian Oryx tie-in into the unicorn legend … well , the creatures have long , thin antlers that , when seen in profile , can be slip for a individual horn . The Biblical word “ re’em ” , which is generally translate as “ unicorn ” , is cerebrate to also cite to the Arabian Oryx . Even if this is all just a coincidence – and it may well be – this mini - resurrection sure as shooting lives up to their mythological namesake .
For more on the IUCN ’s up-to-the-minute conservation news report , ensure outScientific American .
Imagevia .
BiologyconservationEcologyScienceZoology
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