ARAB poets have always praised the beauty of the Arabian oryx. Some Arabs even name their daughters “Maha,” which is the Arabic name for the oryx, the long-horned antelope known for its large deep black beautiful Arabian eyes, slim body and elegance.
The engravings at ancient monuments and archaeological sites indicate that the oryx has existed in Arabian lands even before the time of the pharaohs. In Qatar, people value the oryx, which is Qatar’s national animal. “Orry,” which is the official mascot used for the Asian Games 2006 that is currently taking place in Doha, is also an oryx.
“The Maha is an iconic symbol of the Arabian heritage. It is the only Arabian animal that has survived apart from the deer,” said Dr. Abdel Moty Al-Adhamy, a veterinarian consultant at the Wildlife Conservation and Development Department at the Supreme Council for Environment and Natural Reserves. “It is part of the Arabian heritage,” he said, adding that in ancient pagan rituals people used to drink the blood of the oryx as medicine.
There are three natural reserves in Qatar today. The first and main one was established in 1979 and named the Natural Reserve of Al-Sheehaniya.
The Arabian Maha is a type of wild deer. It used to live in the Arabian Peninsula where the healthy environment allowed the animal to flourish. “The Arabian Peninsula is an environment where the oryx used to live safely. However, as urbanization increased the Arabian Maha found a few areas where it could live safely without any interference and harm from human beings, especially since this animal is ruminant and herbivorous and prefers to remain at a distance away from humans,” said Al-Adhamy.
However, as technology advanced in the modern era it became easier for people to hunt the oryx using sophisticated hunting rifles that could be used from a distance and “as a result the oryx came to the brink of extinction,” said Al-Adhamy.
Concerned individuals realized the threat, and so formed an association called the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (ICUN). “Humans must take from the environment as much as they can without threatening the lives of other living creatures. There must be a balance between human beings, animals and plants,” said Al-Adhamy.
ICUN contacted official organizations in Saudi Arabia and coordinated with them in order to establish a plan to save the oryx. A land survey was conducted by plane in 1972 to gain statistics on the actual number of the oryx in the Kingdom. “They did not find any Arabian Maha not even in the Empty Quarter,” said Al-Adhamy.
ICUN then collected a number of oryx from all over the world — including Qatar, zoos in Phoenix, London and Germany — and built the World Arabian Maha Foundation with an aim of increasing the numbers of oryx in the world. Subsequently the King Khalid Center for Nature Reservation and the Arabian Maha Reproduction in Riyadh was established.
“The numbers of the species were increased but they were unfortunately infected by bovine tuberculosis that killed a large number of them,” said Al-Adhamy. The animals underwent tuber-clean tests to destroy infected animals.
After a large number of Arabian Maha was bred, special reserves were set up to help them reproduce and where the animals would not come into contact with humans. “A large number of them were set free into the wild where they are able to live normally without any sort of interference,” said Al-Adhamy.
Subsequently, special studies and researches were carried out to gain an insight into the nature of the animal, how it lives and how it can be protected and fed.
In Qatar, the sheikhs of Al-Thani used to catch the oryx in the Empty Quarter and bring them to Qatar for breeding. According to Al-Adhamy, this was done in the middle of the 20th century when there was a lack of vets and animal specialists to help look after the animals. They used to deal with them as they deal with camels. But the oryx is sensitive and habituated to living in clean environments away from humans and so many would die.
Qatar realized that the animals needed to be taken care of differently and established the country’s first official reserve in Al-Sheehaniya in 1979. The reserve was divided into barns. “We started the project with 25 Arabian Maha. Now we have more than 700 today,” said Al-Adhamy.
During that period, the animals suffered ulcers and would then die. Since the animals were unaccustomed to living in the wild, they would also catch diseases. According to Al-Adhamy, the first thing they did was to protect the animals from diseases and provide medical care and vaccines especially for females in the latter stages of pregnancy.
All the oryx became officially registered. “We also kept in mind the dangers related to internal mating and the fact that inherited diseases can easily pass among subsequent generations and so we ensured that animals would only mate with animals that they were unrelated to,” said Al-Adhamy.
Al-Adhamy added that they later found that having a single reserve was not enough because of infectious diseases and so they established two other reserves in 1994 and 1995 where 18 oryxes were individually kept.
The death rates after that began to decrease reaching 15 percent in newborns from a previous 100 percent death rate. The project of reserving the Arabian Maha was a foundation stone on which other projects to protect ostriches and addax were founded.
The Arabian Maha Reserve became a well-known spot and a major tourist attraction in Doha. Annually, around 100 schools groups and 50 groups from various companies visit the site.
According to Dr. Al-Adhamy, the Qatari Arabian Maha is special and known for its fine pedigree. The animal is especially healthy on account of the vitamins and the care that experts at the reserves provide them with.
Being part and parcel of Arabia, the male Arabian Maha has the same attitude as their male Arabian human counterparts who feel jealous ad possessive of their female mates. “We usually keep a bigger number of females with a smaller number of males in order to avoid the males from getting jealous and then fighting each other.”
