Rule meant to save exotic antelope will hurt species, ranchers say

Scimitar-horned oryxes huddle in a pen at a Huntsville auction business. A new federal law is placing them on the endangered list. Scimitar-horned oryxes huddle in a pen at a Huntsville auction business. A new federal law is placing them on the endangered list. Photo: Karen Warren Photo: Karen Warren Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Rule meant to save exotic antelope will hurt species, ranchers say 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Its horns, sometimes up to 4 feet long, arc gracefully over its back, almost reaching its hindquarters when it lifts its head to sniff the wind. Vast herds of them once roamed the semi-arid plains of North Africa and the Sahel, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.

It was named in an inscription on the Egyptian tomb of Sabu of Sakkarah nearly 23 centuries ago, and is thought to be the inspirational template for the unicorn.

In 2000, after finally succumbing to hunting, loss of habitat, climate change and war, the scimitar-horned oryx was declared extinct in the wild.

But not in Texas, where it has returned from the brink and now thrives in greater numbers than anywhere on Earth, and where it finds itself at the center of a modern, protracted new battle for survival.

That battle is lost next Wednesday, Texas ranchers fear, when the scimitar-horned oryx and two of its African cousins - the addax and the dama gazelle - officially receive full protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Without the unfettered ability to hunt, breed and trade these animals, ranchers say they will lose the economic incentive to maintain the herds, and whatever gains have been made in restoring their numbers will be lost.

By any measure, those gains have been impressive. In 1979, according to the Texas-based Exotic Wildlife Association, there were 32 scimitar-horned oryx in a captive breeding program in Texas; today there are more than 11,000. Only two addax were known to exist in the state in 1971; today there are more than 5,000. And the number of dama gazelle has increased from nine individuals in 1979 to more than 800 today.

But what makes this success story controversial is that the economic viability of the herds rests largely on the fact that trophy hunters will pay a hefty price - up to $5,500 for an oryx and $10,000 for a dama gazelle - to bag one, and there are those who would rather see the animals disappear than see them hunted.

Friends of Animals, a Connecticut-based animal rights organization adamantly opposed to hunting, has been fighting for more than two decades to have the three species listed on the national Endangered Species Act. In 2005, it succeeded.

Exemption challenged

At the same time, however, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted an exemption from certain provisions of the act relating to the "taking" - or hunting - and transportation of the animals, essentially maintaining the status quo.

That exemption was successfully challenged by Friends of Animals, and it disappears on April 4.

"What they had was a blanket exemption from the Endangered Species Act," said Friends of Animals president Priscilla Feral. "They don't like the fact that we forced the government to enforce the law."

That's perhaps understating it - only on the surface is this about enforcing the law. At its heart, it is a bitter fight over conservation and how that intersects with private property rights and animal rights.

Feral does not mince her words. She would rather see the three species become extinct in Texas than see a single animal hunted in what she says are "canned hunts." She calls the ranchers "pimps." She says they are more interested in putting a head on the wall than in conserving the species.

Money plays a part

True, altruism is not to be entirely credited with the meteoric rise in the numbers of scimitar-horned oryx, addax and dama gazelle in Texas. Its about making money, and if it becomes difficult to hunt them, their value declines, and there are plenty of other desirable exotic species on Texas ranches - between 80 and 125, depending on how you count them - to take up the slack.

Already, ahead of the implementation of the new rules, ranchers have been escalating hunts and selling off their stocks of the three species before the bottom drops out of the market.

In Kerrville, taxidermist Gary Broach normally sees maybe 10 to 12 scimitar-horned oryx come into his shop for processing and mounting in a year; in the last 28 days, 23 have come in for full-head mounting, and at least 17 others for lesser treatments.

And in Huntsville, livestock trader Tommy Oates, who earlier this week picked up for auction a load of 20 scimitar-horned oryx from a South Texas ranch, said the market price for the animals already has dropped as much as 40 percent and will go down even further next Thursday.

"There's ranchers up here that lined them up and killed every damned one they had because after April 4 they have no value at all," said J. David Bamberger, a celebrated Texas conservationist who pioneered the growth of the Texas scimitar-horned oryx herd in the late 1970s on his Hill Country ranch.

Permits hard to get

Bamberger, who allows the hunting of Texas whitetail deer on his property, but not exotics, said the initial oryx breeding program was started by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in an attempt to maintain the genetic diversity of those few animals then in captivity.

If the market tanks, he said he will have to apply for a hard-to-get permit from the government so that he can cull his herd in order to keep it genetically diverse. The new rule will, in effect, force him to start shooting the antelope he has refused to shoot until now.

Some ranchers will apply for permits and continue offering the three antelope for hunts, said Texas biologist Elizabeth Mungall, the author of a book on the state's exotic wildlife. She said many won't, however, because of the bureaucracy involved and because of the government intrusion it will entail.

"Many of the ranchers don't want to be subject to federal inspection," Mungall said. "These permits will allow the government to come onto their private property at any time, unannounced for inspection."

If Feral is the public face of the efforts to stop hunting the antelope, Charlie Seale is the face of her nemesis as executive director of the Exotic Wildlife Association. He maintains that should the new rule survive legal challenges from his organization and other interested parties, the number of scimitar-horned oryx in Texas will plummet to no more than 1,000 animals in 10 years.

"It's a private property issue, and hunting is a management tool," Seale said. "There is no slaughter market for these animals. Hunting gives them value. A certain percentage of them (ranchers) will get the permits, but I think less than 10 percent will."

Feral is almost evangelical in her belief that the only place the scimitar- horned oryx belongs is back in its habitat in Africa, and she touts Friends of Animals involvement, at least in the early stages, in a small-scale effort to reintroduce the animal into two preserves in Senegal, where about 150 of them now live in enclosed areas.

Ironically, the Exotic Wildlife Association is also involved in that effort.

Private sector a factor

Conservationists caution against a one-dimensional approach to saving any species in the modern world. Governments have traditionally played the major role in conservation, but the role of the private sector, such as the Texas ranchers, is increasingly important - as is the role of hunting.

"In this instance, Texas ranchers have done an astonishing job of rebuilding three species of African antelope, one of which is extinct in the wild," said Pat Condy, a biologist and executive director of the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose. "When it comes to saving a species, government on its own cannot save those species. The private sector has to get involved."

tony.freemantle@chron.com