Named for its long, curving horns, the scimitar-horned oryx
stands about 1.2 meters (4 feet) tall. Its horns may add
another .9 meters (3 feet) of height to its body.
Although the oryx lives mostly in desert and scrubland areas
of North Africa, it likes to feed on grasses. So the oryx must
migrate over some distance in order to find enough food. The
domestic cattle that compete for the same grasses and the game
hunters who hunt the animal for its trophy horns both threaten
the oryx's survival.
No one knows how many oryx remain in the wild. Some people
think there a few hundred left, while others believe none
survive. About 10 captive-bred oryx were reintroduced to a
national park in Tunisia in 1985.
