Genus Oryx · de Blainville, 1816
Horns like spears, a face painted black and white, and the power to live where almost nothing survives. This is the story of the oryx, the antelope that inspired the legend of the unicorn.
The oryx is a large antelope of the bovid family that lives in the most arid regions of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
All species share an unmistakable design: a sturdy body, a tufted tail, a facial mask of black and white patches and long horns, straight or curved, carried by both males and females. The name comes from the Greek ὄρυξ (óryx), meaning “pickaxe” or digging tool, perhaps because of those sharp horns.
In profile, its two horns look like one. That, many believe, is how the myth of the unicorn was born.
From the temples of Egypt to the brink of extinction and back to the desert: few species have a story so tied to our own.
Egyptians depicted the oryx in tomb reliefs and kept and bred it in captivity, probably as a religious offering and as food. The scimitar-horned oryx was the emblem of the Oryx nome, the 16th province of Upper Egypt, whose Middle Kingdom governors were buried at Beni Hasan.
Aristotle and, later, Pliny the Elder described the oryx as a one-horned animal. Seen from the side, an oryx does look like a unicorn; and if it loses a horn in a fight, it truly becomes one. The legend would travel through medieval bestiaries for centuries.
Linnaeus described the gemsbok in 1758; Pallas the Arabian oryx in 1777; Henri de Blainville created the genus Oryx in 1816; the scimitar-horned (1827) and the beisa (1835) followed.
With the Arabian oryx about to vanish, the Fauna Preservation Society captured some of the last wild animals in southern Arabia. Together with animals donated by other collections, they formed the “World Herd” at Phoenix Zoo, Arizona, with just nine animals.
Ninety-three Kalahari gemsbok were released on the White Sands Missile Range, USA. With no natural predators, thousands live there today.
Hunters shot the last free-living Arabian oryx at Jiddat al-Harasis, Oman. The species survived only in captivity.
Ten descendants of the World Herd were released into the desert of central Oman. Reintroductions followed in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel and Jordan.
Declared extinct in the wild in 2000, the scimitar-horned oryx was reintroduced to Chad from 2016. In 2023 the IUCN downlisted it to Endangered: it had come back from extinction.
Science recognises four species in the genus Oryx. The fringe-eared oryx is usually treated as a subspecies of the beisa, although some authors consider it a fifth.
LC Least Concern
The largest and heaviest. Greyish-fawn coat, lots of black on the legs and flanks, an all-black tail and white “socks”. Its straight horns average about 85 cm; females’ are longer and thinner.
Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and parts of Zimbabwe (Kalahari and Namib deserts).
VU Vulnerable
The smallest and the whitest: its pale coat reflects the sun of the Empty Quarter. It went extinct in the wild in 1972 and roams the desert again today.
Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel and Jordan (reintroduced populations).
EN Endangered
White with a russet neck and chest and horns arched like sabres. It once migrated across the Sahel in herds of thousands; it vanished from the wild in 2000.
Sahel and southern Sahara; reintroduced in Chad (Ouadi Rimé–Ouadi Achim), and in Tunisia, Morocco and Senegal.
EN Endangered
The oryx of East Africa. Slimmer than the gemsbok, grey with a white belly separated by a black stripe, and with far less black on the legs.
Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and northern Kenya (Horn of Africa).
EN With beisa
Subspecies
A close relative of the beisa, more cinnamon in tone and with black tufts at the tips of its ears, hence its name.
Southern Kenya (south of the Tana River) and northern Tanzania.
| Species | Weight | Horns | Coat | IUCN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemsbok | 180–240 kg | Straight, ≈ 85 cm | Greyish-fawn, lots of black on legs | Least Concern |
| Arabian oryx | 65–75 kg | Straight, 50–75 cm | White, dark legs | Vulnerable |
| Scimitar-horned oryx | 140–210 kg | Curved, 100–120 cm | White, russet neck | Endangered |
| Beisa oryx | 115–190 kg | Straight, 75–80 cm | Grey, white belly | Endangered |
They are the two most similar oryx. Just check three things: where it is, how much black it has on its legs and what its tail looks like.
Check the map. In the wild their ranges don’t meet: in southern Africa it’s a gemsbok; in the east, a beisa.
Check the legs. Black thighs and upper legs: gemsbok. Grey like the body: beisa.
Sand and stone deserts, semi-deserts, steppes and dry savannas: the oryx inhabits some of the hottest and driest places on the planet.
It lives in herds that travel long distances following the rains and fresh grazing. It can go weeks without drinking and spends the hottest hours of the day in the shade of acacias or rocks.
O. gazella · red dunes, salt pans and dry savanna.
O. beisa · thorn scrub and arid plains.
O. dammah · steppe between the Sahara and the savanna.
O. leucoryx · gravel plains and the dunes of the Empty Quarter.
Rather than spending water on cooling, it lets its body temperature rise during the day and sheds the heat in the cool of the night. Daily swings of about 4 °C have been measured in wild Arabian oryx.
A network of blood vessels in the muzzle, the rete mirabile, cools the blood flowing to the brain even when the body is very hot.
Highly concentrated urine and dry droppings. It gets much of its water from food: wild melons and cucumbers can supply all the water a gemsbok needs.
The almost luminous white coat of the Arabian oryx reflects much of the sun’s radiation and helps it avoid overheating in the desert sun.
Broad hooves spread its weight, letting it walk on soft sand and gravel and cover huge distances.
The Arabian oryx is believed to sense distant storms and travel towards them to find the grazing that sprouts after rain.
The oryx is a herbivore and ruminant: its four-chambered stomach lets it get the most out of even the poorest grazing.
It grazes grasses when available and browses shrub leaves when they are scarce. It can dig up to a metre deep for roots, bulbs and tubers that hold moisture, and seeks out juicy fruits such as tsamma melons and the wild cucumbers of the Kalahari.
Its great trick is feeding at night and at dawn: at those hours some desert plants absorb moisture from the air and hold more water than at midday.
Typical summer rhythm (varies by species, season and region).
The oryx has no fixed rutting season: it can breed all year round, although births increase after the rains, when food is plentiful.
Herds of 2 to 40 animals are usually led by a dominant male, who faces rivals in horn duels. During courtship the male follows the female and gently taps her between the hind legs with a foreleg, a ritual ethologists call Laufschlag.
Peaks after the rainy season.
About 240 days in the Arabian oryx and 270 in the gemsbok.
Usually just one; scimitar-horned calves weigh 10 to 15 kg.
The calf lies hidden in the vegetation; the mother returns to nurse it.
Weaning starts at 3.5 months; by about 4.5 it is independent.
Both males and females, in gemsbok and scimitar-horned oryx.
About 18–20 years in the wild and up to about 20 in captivity.
Two oryx species disappeared completely from the wild and came back. They are two of the greatest conservation successes in history.
It was the first animal to improve three categories on the IUCN Red List after going extinct in the wild. Today more than 1,000 live free, with thousands more in reserves and zoos.
Thanks to reintroduction in the Ouadi Rimé–Ouadi Achim reserve (Chad), the species moved from “Extinct in the Wild” to “Endangered”. Calves are now born in the wild.
Oman’s Arabian Oryx Sanctuary became the first site ever removed from the UNESCO World Heritage List, after Oman cut its area by 90% for hydrocarbon prospecting and its oryx population fell from 450 to 65.
Seen in profile, its two horns overlap and look like one. Many historians believe the oryx inspired the legend of the unicorn.
Its horns are formidable weapons. Since the 19th century there have been accounts of lions run through by the horns of a cornered gemsbok.
Males and females both have horns. Females’ horns are usually thinner and sometimes even longer.
Two gemsbok support Namibia’s national coat of arms, a symbol of courage, elegance and pride.
The Arabian oryx is the national animal of Qatar, Oman, Jordan, the UAE and Bahrain, appears on the tails of Qatar Airways planes and was “Orry”, the mascot of the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.
The White Sands gemsbok have adapted so well to the Chihuahuan Desert that they now number around 3,000.
The oryx belongs to the subfamily Hippotraginae, along with the sable and roan antelopes, Africa’s other great “horse antelopes”.
Scimitar-horned oryx horns measure 1 to 1.2 metres, in both males and females. In 1936 a single herd of 10,000 was seen in Chad.
Four species are recognised: the gemsbok (Oryx gazella), the beisa oryx (Oryx beisa), the scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah) and the Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx). The fringe-eared oryx (Oryx callotis) is considered a subspecies of the beisa or, by some authors, a fifth species.
In deserts, semi-deserts and dry savannas of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula: the Kalahari and Namib, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and the deserts of Arabia.
It is a herbivore and ruminant: it eats grasses, shoots, shrub leaves, roots, bulbs and water-rich fruits such as wild melons and cucumbers. It gets much of the water it needs from its food.
Several weeks. It gets water from the plants, roots and fruits it eats, produces highly concentrated urine and lets its body temperature rise during the day to save water. The gemsbok can meet all its water needs by eating wild melons and cucumbers.
About 18 to 20 years in the wild, and up to about 20 in captivity.
It depends on the species: the gemsbok is Least Concern, the Arabian oryx is Vulnerable, and the beisa and scimitar-horned oryx are Endangered. The Arabian and scimitar-horned oryx both went extinct in the wild and returned thanks to captive breeding and reintroduction.
