00:00In England, a desert antelope has been transferred to the Bedfordshire Zoo in an ongoing effort to bring the species
00:07back from the brink of extinction.
00:09Having traveled from the Alborg Zoo in Denmark through land and sea, Sabre, a scimitar-horned oryx, seemed to very
00:17much like his new enclosure with plenty of space to run and other antelopes to hang with.
00:23According to Reuters, zookeeper Gracie G. described Sabre's arrival as an exciting moment where confident he'll get along with our
00:33current all-female herd and play a vital role in his species' future survival.
00:39The transfer formed part of an international breeding program which has been launched to protect this extinct-in-the-wild
00:47species.
00:47The scimitar-horned oryx once thrived in Central Africa.
00:52As grazers, they played a huge role in the local ecosystem, maintaining the grasslands and preventing the spread of desertification.
01:00Sadly, their population began to plummet greatly around the 1980s when humans started hunting them for their horns and meat.
01:08While the species was declared as extinct-in-the-wild by the IUCN Red List in the year 2000, the
01:16ZSL, or Zoological Society of London, say that descendants of the species are now thriving and reproducing in Central Africa.
01:25The ZSL has been keeping a close eye, monitoring the budding population as they slowly grow in numbers.
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