In 2016, just 25 scimitar-horned oryx were flown from Abu Dhabi to Chad, marking the first time the species had set foot in the wild since it vanished there in the 1980s. Since then, according to Sahara Conservation and the Environment Agency, Abu Dhabi, 285 oryx have been released into Chad's Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve, and the wild population has grown past 600 animals, prompting the IUCN to downlist the species from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered. Conservationists now hope to expand the reintroduction program to additional protected areas across the species' historic range in North Africa.
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