The spatial distributions of 20 female and 15 male Arabian oryx Oryx leucoryx, reintroduced into the fenced Mahazat as-Sayd protected area (2,244 km2) in western Saudi Arabia between 1990 and 1994, were examined from their release until the end of 1999. Over this period we observed a westward shift in home range location of most male and female founder oryx to include the Rangers' Camp within core areas of activity, despite rain falling in patches throughout most of the reserve. Sporadic and unplanned availability of water had occurred at the Camp during several years. The pre-release enclosure was also located at the Camp, and high quality shading areas could be found underneath portacabins. Oryx that maintained independence of the Camp tended to be older individuals and those released in the first years (1990–1992). Concentration of oryx in the western part of the protected area and around the Camp could potentially reduce the effective carrying capacity of the reserve, change the social structure of the population, facilitate the transmission of disease, modify habitat in the form of a piosphere (a zone of attenuating animal impact away from a watering point) around the Camp, and reduce potential genetic flow within the reintroduced population. Whereas wild-born oryx were observed at the Camp, founders were disproportionately represented, suggesting that potential problems associated with dependence on the Camp may diminish as the total population increases and ages.

In reports of this nature it is customary to conclude by acknowledging the help received from other persons or organizations. In this case the procedure is being reversed in order to emphasize the fact that “Operation Oryx” was a combined operation, of which the part played by the field party represented only one facet.

The Arabian oryx may now be extinct in the wild. If so it was exterminated by hunters in four-wheel drive vehicles using automatic weapons. Fortunately the species has bred well in captivity thanks largely to the 1962 FPS Operation Oryx, and now animals bred in the USA are becoming available for return to the wild where practicable. Jordan has already embarked on such a project, and Oman, home of the last oryx herds in Arabia, is now planning to release oryx in the Jiddat al Harasis, a vast stony plateau where the last known wild Arabian oryx were killed. In February 1977, at the request of the Oman Government, Dr Jungius, as Director of WWF's Department of Conservation, made a feasibility study, from the report of which the following article is extracted, followed up by a more detailed investigation in March 1978. One most encouraging aspect of the scheme is that the Harasis people regard the oryx as their tribal property. They want the oryx to return, and are prepared to guard them.

In this account of a safari to look for Arabian oryx in Oman—home of probably the last survivors in the wild—the author found remains of three dead animals and evidence for the chasing and capture alive of four more. These, he believes, were the last wild Arabian oryx. Other observers think that it is too soon to say, and emphasise the vastness of the area, but certainly, in the interval since this safari in October 1972, no reports of wild Arabian oryx have been received by the FPS.

January 31, 1982 was a milestone in the long struggle to save Oryx leucoryx from extinction in the wild. On that day ten Arabian oryx, nine of them born and bred in the United States, were released into the open desert in Oman. The release was a triumph for Operation Oryx, launched almost 20 years earlier, in April 1962, by the Fauna Preservation Society, as it then was; in Oman it was also a day of rejoicing for the Harasis tribe, who will once again guard their white oryx in the Jidda al Harasis, and for Sultan Qaboos bin Said, whose generous support and cooperation made the return possible.

Following the extinction of the Arabian oryx Oryx leucoryx in the wild in 1972 Jordan began a reintroduction programme in 1978 with 11 founding animals. When the herd size reached 31 in 1983 most were released from captive breeding pens into the 342 km2 Shaumari Nature Reserve, part of which (22 km2) was fenced the following year to protect the oryx and exclude livestock. The herd grew initially (between 1979 and 1986) at about 23% per year. In 1990, when the herd numbered 79, its management was preparing to release it into the wild outside the fenced reserve. However, Bedouin families fleeing the Gulf War in Kuwait and Iraq brought 1.6 million sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys into Jordan. These livestock so overgrazed potential oryx habitat throughout the arid rangelands that reintroduction was impossible. Overcrowding within Shaumari became apparent by 1995, when the population numbered 186. The herd's rate of increase began to decline as productivity and recruitment decreased and mortality increased. In 1997, to reduce overcrowding, the herd's management began dispersing them to other Middle Eastern countries and to another nature reserve in Jordan. By February 2006, 43 oryx remained at Shaumari. In 2005, however, the prospects improved when the United Nations Compensation Commission awarded Jordan the cost of environmental damages resulting from the 1990–1991 Gulf War. Part of this award is designated for renewal of the captive breeding and reintroduction programme.