It’s been a century since an onager or Asiatic wild ass was last seen in Saudi Arabia. But in April this year, seven onagers were relocated from neighboring Jordan into one of Saudi Arabia’s nature reserves. One of the onagers has even birthed a female foal since then. “These are the first free running onager seen in Saudi Arabia since their extinction in the early 1900s,” Andrew Zaloumis, CEO of Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve (PMBSRR), which now hosts the onagers, said in a press release. “Their reintroduction represents a transformative step for their conservation and a major landmark in the Kingdom’s biodiversity efforts.” Saudi Arabia was historically home to the Syrian wild ass (Equus hemionus hemippus), an onager subspecies that was hunted into extinction in the 1920s. The PMBSRR, in a report shared with Mongabay, said it has a policy of introducing “historically occurring species in its re-wilding program.” But with the Syrian onager gone forever, it’s closest living relative, the Persian onager (E. h. onager) from Jordan, “was deemed the best alternative sub-species with which to re-populate the Middle East.” The report said this choice follows the principle espoused by global wildlife conservation authority the IUCN that reestablishing an ecological function lost through extinction can involve “the most suitable” existing subspecies or a close relative. With fewer than 600 individuals left in the wild, the Persian onager is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. The wild ass, native to Iran, has previously been introduced to…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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