ORYX RESERVE

During your expedition in the desert of Ras Abrouq, you will not fail to pass through the Oryx reserve near Film City. Managed by the Supreme Council for the Environment and Natural Reserves (SCENR), it is a closed place where Arabian Oryx breed, with the aim of reintroducing them to reserves in the country later.

The Qatar Oryx is the emblem of the national airline Qatar Airways. It is the only oryx in Arabia (the others are from sub-Saharan Africa) and depends on the antelope family. Of all the types of antelopes, the Arabian oryx lives in the hottest and driest environment. It has a uniformly white colour and darker spots at eye level. An oryx female weighs about 80 kg and a male 90 kg. Their gestation period is 8.5 months. A female can have 1 baby per year. They live about 20 years. Oryx eat little, the thin tufts of desert grasses or the shoots of bushes. They generally live in herds of 8 to 20 oryx. The oryx have been decimated by hunters: the flesh is highly valued and they use its horns and skin to make utilitarian and ornamental objects. Their race that was about to disappear is now protected. A farm has established, developed and protected herds. Several parks close to life in the wild have been developed, raising thousands of gazelles and hundreds of oryx, as well as this breeding centre in the middle of the desert that delights tourists passing through.