Conservation of native species a priority for Al Ain Zoo

Throughout its history, Al Ain Zoo has played a vital role in protecting the indigenous animals of the Arabian Gulf.
Visitors seeing the many animals on display is only part of the zoo's story.
In fact, only 45 hectares of the zoo's 900 hectares are open to the public. Behind the scenes, numerous breeding programmes take place, with one of its success stories being the Arabian oryx.
The white antelope, crowned with long black horns, once lived throughout the Arabian Peninsula and in Iraq.
Hunting decimated population numbers and by the middle of the 20th century they only were only found in remote parts of Oman.
Various UAE agencies and groups have brought the numbers of Arabian oryxworked to increase their numbers to 4,000, the largest population in the world.
The zoo has played a part in vastly increasing the numbers and in 2008 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) improved the Arabian oryx's conservation status from "endangered" to "vulnerable".
Three years ago, some oryx were released into the wild and are monitored by organisations such as the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, which partners with Al Ain Zoo for the conservation programme.
The zoo has also been working to protect the Arabian sand cat.
The IUCN lists the species as near-threatened but little research has been carried out to find out how many are left, partly because the desert feline is so elusive, said Muna Al Dhaheri, chief conservation and education officer.
A three-day workshop at the zoo last month involved wildlife experts from across the region meeting to organise this research and discuss breeding programmes.
An awareness campaign about the sand cat is planned to start in schools next year.
Al Ain Zoo has the largest collection of sand cats in the world, although only one of the cats is on display.
"That's why the [regional] zoos are interested in our breeding and conservation programme, because of the uniqueness of the collection," Ms Al Dhaheri said.
"A lot of zoos are interested in knowing why the breeding programme at Al Ain Zoo is so successful, while in other zoos, it was not."
Al Ain has also tried to protect the houbara bustard, a vulnerable species that was threatened by falconers, who used it to train their birds of prey to hunt.
The IUCN estimated last year that 100,000 birds remained in the wild, although the species' number is decreasing.
The zoo also seeks to preserve species that are not native to the area. It has the largest collection of North African creatures, with large numbers of the critically endangered dama gazelle and African oryx.
lcarroll@thenational.ae