Los Angeles Zoo 2003 - Arabian Oryx enclosure

April 2003

Arabian Oryx enclosure.

Now one of two yards for the Peninsular Pronghorns. L.A. was a pioneer in Arabian Oryx conservation. After the herd established in Phoenix in 1962, Arabian Oryx came to Los Angeles, by way of the Rome Zoo in 1967, under some controversy. They successfully produced hundreds of calves here.

Correction: The original three Los Angeles Zoo Arabian Oryx, were recieved from Naples Zoo, not Rome.

Hopefully this beautiful antelope could one day come back to the zoo.

Hopefully the zoo will have the same success with the Peninsular Pronghorn as they did with the Arabian Oryx.

I was sad to see the last Arabian Oryx leave here just a few years ago. They had been a regular part of my numerous visits to this zoo for so many years.

True, they are stunning, majestic animals; the breeding success doesn't surprise me, after all the climate must be the same as in Phoenix and down in Escondido where the species was so famously saved. But should I give LA the same credit as the WAP, did they receive Oryx at the same time as the WAP?

That's the myth about the WAP, L.A. received their Arabian Oryx back in 1967. I don't think the WAP received their first Arabians until 1972, and they were probably from both L.A. and Phoenix. The WAP shouldn't receive anymore credit than either Phoenix or L.A., as some ignorantly would have you to believe. At this very moment, I'm looking through my copy of the International Zoo Yearbook, volume 13, published in 1973. According to this issue of the IZY, which compiled its Census of Rare Animals between February and June of 1972 for this volume, there were only 3 zoos in the entire world displaying Arabian Oryx, and they were:

Abu Dhabi 2/1; Los Angeles 3/7; and Phoenix 17/13, for a grand total of 22/21. They also mention that there was no data received from Qatar Arab(private) 13/22; Riyadh Saudi Arabia.

If any zoo should receive top praise for bringing the Arabian Oryx back from the brink of extinction, that honor should go to the Phoenix Zoo, definitely not the San Diego WAP. The IZY record shows, that if San Diego WAP did receive their Arabian Oryx, even in 1972, it would have had to have been sometime after the month of June, for that's when the census for volume 13 closed.

Blackduiker

And just to support the truth about bringing the Arabian Oryx back from the brink, here is the International Zoo Yearbook's breeding statistics for volume 13, which were compiled in 1971:

Abu Dhabi 1/0; Los Angeles 2/0; Phoenix 3/3.

That's at least a year before San Diego WAP even stepped into the picture with this species!

My January 1971 issue of Zoo View magazine, the official magazine of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, has an article in it entitled; Oryx Exchange Studied by Zoo. And in that article, the discussion was concerning the possible exchange of one female from the Los Angeles Zoo, for a male from the Phoenix Zoo. Up to this point, all of L.A.'s 5 births since 1967 were all females. And the majority of Phoenix, then 24 Oryx, were mostly males.

The article also mentions the recent visit to L.A., by Lord and Lady Wellington. Lord Wellington, was the then president of the Fauna Preservation Society, here to discuss the possible cross-breeding between the World Herd in Phoenix, and the Sharif Djalil Karim herd in Los Angeles. That's how important a role these two zoos played in the conservation efforts to save the Arabian Oryx Baldur.

Amen to that. It always bothered me riding the WGASA bushline monorail hearing how the SDWAP "saved" the Arabian oryx.

Unfortunately, the zoo world hasn't always given credit, where credit is due.

To be honest, if you'd asked me which zoo I'd associate with setting up the Arabian Oryx programme in the States, I'd have said Phoenix every time.