Beisa oryx
Oryx beisa
Seen by the oracleIts power
Instead of sweating, it lets its body heat up to 45 °C, and cools its brain through its nose.
Estimated wild population
Fewer than 5,000 adults
Trend
Declining
Range
Kenya / Ethiopia / Somalia / Tanzania
Main threat
Poaching, competition with livestock, farmland taking over its land
Meet it
It really exists. It is waiting for you at the Parc Animalier d’Auvergne.
The beisa oryx is a large antelope from the dry lands of East Africa. You can recognise it by its pearl-grey coat, the black stripe along its sides and its two long straight horns, which can reach almost a metre. It is perfectly suited to desert life: it can put up with a high body temperature so that it doesn’t have to sweat, which saves precious water. It lives in herds of 5 to 40, sometimes more in the rainy season. Hunting and farm animals taking over its land have caused a sharp drop in its numbers.
What the Park does
Protection in Awash National Park (Ethiopia) and other reserves in East Africa