Addax

The Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) is a medium-sized antelope that inhabits the dunes and sand seas of the Sahara. Formerly widespread across the entire region, the addax is today one of the rarest and most endangered species on earth. With probably less than 300 remaining in the wild, the species’ survival depends on urgent and comprehensive action in its last remaining strongholds in Chad and Niger.

The decline of the addax mirrors to a large extent the penetration of the Sahara by modern weapons and 4-wheel drive vehicles. Addax disappeared from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt during the first half of the 20th Century. Further south, where pressure on the desert was less intense, its decline has occurred during the past 50 years or so. As late as the 1960s, Mauritania's Majabat Al-Koubra was home to thousands of addax and there is still hope that some remain today.

Over-hunting is the most important cause of the addax’s demise, with drought, desertification and habitat encroachment also having a cumulative impact. Although the most highly-adapted of aridlands antelopes, capable of surviving for years without drinking water, the addax does have its limits and when long-term drought occurs they are driven out of the desert in search of grazing. This not only exposes them to hunters but also drives them into marginal areas that are increasingly occupied by herders and degraded by subsistence farming.

With its partners in Chad and Niger, SCF is spearheading an addax conservation and recovery programme focussing on the establishment and management of new protected areas and the development of community-based conservation measures. In Tunisia and Morocco, where the addax is now extinct in the wild, efforts are underway to reintroduce the species to desert parks from stock bred in country or imported from scientifically controlled breeding programmes in Europe and the United States.

The 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the addax as Critically Endangered (CR A2cd). The addax is listed on Appendix I of both the CITES Convention and the Convention on Migratory Species. Although fully protected by law in most of its current and former range states, real protection is in fact weak.

A full account of the addax by John Newby from the soon-to-be-published Mammals of Africa can be downloaded here.

For an historical overview of the addax's status and a look at the CMS Action Plan priorities for the addax, click here to access the excellent chapter in the CMS publication prepared by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.