{"id":75643,"date":"2025-08-17T05:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T05:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/75643\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T05:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T05:04:09","slug":"hampshire-zoo-marks-first-international-day-for-rare-antelope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/75643\/","title":{"rendered":"Hampshire zoo marks first international day for rare antelope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755175091_522_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/d96a3690-7a7e-11f0-81f2-1b12a33e5000.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Marwell Zoo Four oryx in the wild. There are flowers in front of them and mountains at the background.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Marwell Zoo<\/p>\n<p>The scimitar-horned oryx had completely disappeared from the wild by the 1990s but conservation efforts reintroduced the species back to Africa<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A zoo is set to celebrate its first international day dedicated to a rare species of antelope, <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-hampshire-67707254\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 bGFWdi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">which it helped saved from extinction<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Marwell Zoo near Winchester, Hampshire, has been working with the scimitar-horned oryx since its gates first opened in 1972.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Its first annual awareness day, voted for by the public and the charity, will be marked at the zoo on Saturday with events including the chance to meet the scimitar-horned oryx keepers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Dr Tania Gilbert, Marwell Wildlife&#8217;s head of conservation science, said although the animal might not be well-known, &#8220;it&#8217;s a fantastic story showing that conservation does work and it does matter&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755175091_522_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/55e128a0-7a7f-11f0-81f2-1b12a33e5000.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Marwell Zoo One oryx in the wild. There are flowers in front of it and mountains at the background.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Marwell Zoo<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The conservation charity won the British Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) awareness day competition with its nomination and 16 August was marked as International Scimitar-Horned Oryx Day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Other considerations included the Andean bear, Somali wild ass and lungfish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Indigenous to North Africa, the curved-horn antelope had completely disappeared from the wild by the 1990s due to over hunting, competition with livestock, and droughts. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">But after conservation efforts across the world, the species was reintroduced back into the wild and had <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/newsround\/67689675\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 bGFWdi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a positive change in its conservation status<\/a> from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The antelope gets its name after its horns which are shaped like a scimitar sword.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The zoo said their horns could grow up to 1.5m (5ft) long, which is longer than they are tall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The antelope can go up to 10 months without drinking water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Dr Gilbert said saving the animal from extinction was &#8220;the perfect example of what can be achieved when we all work together to save species.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">She said the animal might not be as well know as tigers or elephants but its story showed that conservation does work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;It is incredibly rewarding to see them in the wild in Tunisia,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marwell Zoo The scimitar-horned oryx had completely disappeared from the wild by the 1990s but conservation efforts reintroduced&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-75643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}