今年夏天，25只弯角剑羚(scimitar-horned oryx)将会在乍得被放生，这是历史性的第一次。

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乍得动物保护区内的弯角剑羚。 (© EAD)

弯角剑羚是一种沙漠动物，具有独特的长而直的头角，它曾出没在西至毛里塔尼亚和摩洛哥，东至埃及和苏丹一带地区。由于没有狩猎管制，以及干旱和栖息地丧失，这种羚羊群于1980年代在野生环境中灭绝。据估计，人工饲养的弯角剑羚目前有6000只。

它是过去20年中在野生环境中灭绝的最大型哺乳类动物（英文）。

史密森尼保护生物学研究所(Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute)所长史蒂夫·蒙福特（Steve Monfort）说：“恢复野生剑羚将对保护和管理整个萨赫连(Sahelian)草原生态系统产生巨大而积极的影响。” 当剑羚在三月被空运到乍得里梅干河-阿希姆干河动物保护区（Ouadi Rimé–Ouadi Achim Game Reserve）时，他也在场。

这次放归是由阿布扎比环境局(Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi,EAD)和乍得政府的弯角剑羚放归计划(Scimitar-horned Oryx Reintroduction Program)努力的结果。


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剑羚群先在乍得保护区适应环境，然后在今年夏天将被释放到野外。 (© EAD)

在剑羚群回归自然之前，每只羚羊将被戴上GPS定位颈圈，由美国史密森尼保护生物学研究所和伦敦动物学会(Zoological Society of London)的科学家负责跟踪监视。由EAD和撒哈拉保护基金会（Sahara Conservation Fund）培训的护猎员将监视在乍得的剑羚群。

撒哈拉保护基金会的首席执行官约翰·纽比(John Newby)表示，现行的计划是定期引入新羚羊，以便“在未来的三、四年中达到有生存力的数量。”

“可以比较肯定地说，这是一个迄今绝无仅有的保护项目。” 

A type of antelope whose horns were marketed as unicorn horns in medieval times and that later became extinct in the wild is returning to Africa.

This summer, 25 scimitar-horned oryx will be reintroduced to the wild in Chad, a historic first.

The scimitar-horned oryx, a desert animal with distinctive long, straight horns, once roamed from Mauritania and Morocco in the west to Egypt and Sudan in the east. This herding antelope went extinct in the wild in the 1980s due to unregulated hunting, drought and habitat loss. An estimated 6,000 live in captivity.

It is the largest mammal to have gone extinct in the wild in the last 20 years.

“Restoring oryx to the wild will have a huge and positive impact on the conservation and management of the entire Sahelian grasslands ecosystem,” said Steve Monfort, director of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. He was in Chad when the oryx arrived in March by plane and were taken to the Ouadi Rimé–Ouadi Achim Game Reserve.

The reintroduction is a result of efforts by the Environment Agency–Abu Dhabi (EAD) and the government of Chad’s Scimitar-horned Oryx Reintroduction Program.

Before the herd is released into the wild, each oryx will be fitted with a GPS-satellite collar so that scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in the United States and the Zoological Society of London can monitor it. Rangers trained by EAD and the Sahara Conservation Fund will monitor the herd in Chad.

The plan is to bring in new shipments of oryx at regular intervals, thus “seeding over the next three of four years a viable wild population,” said John Newby, chief executive of the Sahara Conservation Fund.

“It is probably safe to say there is no other conservation project like it.”