HARPURSVILLE (WBNG) -- Animal Adventure park welcomed a new addition to their Scimitar Horned Oryx enclosure on February 26.

A new baby Oryx named Oakley, its the first Oryx the park was able to breed.

Whats significant about this baby? In 2000 their species were declared extinct in the wild.

However through determination and conservation efforts the species was given a second chance, in 2016 they were reintroduced back into the wild.

Native to Northern Africa there are now 1,000 Scimitar Horned Oryx in the wild and a total of 6,000 - 7,000 in captivity.

"This baby is very important for conservation efforts, our female and male we have here have never had a calf before together, and with this being her first calf." said Erin Lien the curator at Animal Adventure Park.

"So he is very unrepresented in the genetic pool right now, so he will probably move on from our facility as soon as he is of age and go somewhere where he can be used and his genetics can be represented with other females of the population."

Oakley will move on to another park when he comes of age to take part in a survival species programs and continue the gene pool of his species.

Read the original:
A Second Chance: How conservation saved a species - WBNG-TV

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