EAD established the Delaika Conservation & Breeding Facility in 2010, located in Al Khazna area southern part of Abu Dhabi. The Delaika Conservation & Breeding Facility is the home of 5 000 animals and consists of three species: Mountain Gazelles, Arabian Oryx & Sand Gazelles.

Arabian Oryx became extinct in the wild in the early 1970’s. After noticing the alarming decline in wild herds of Arabian Oryx, the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan intervened, and the country began conservation efforts and saved the species from extinction. The EAD’s breeding and reintroduction project was established in 2010 and is home to 5 000 animals and includes three species: Arabian Oryx, Mountain Gazelles and Sand Gazelles.

Abu Dhabi is currently home to 3 000 Arabian Oryx, the largest population of Arabian Oryx in the world.

As part of our breeding and reintroduction programmes to bring the Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) back from the brink of extinction, our success stories include translocations of Arabian Oryx from different countries. The UAE Ministry of Environment, Government of Chad, the Sahara Conservation Fund, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Zoological Society of London’s Fossil Rim Wildlife Centre, Marwell Wildlife, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the European Union, and the Saint Louis Zoo Wild Care Institute have been our key partners to the success of this ambitious programme.