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 Jordan and Mongolia. It’s one of the four remaining subspecies of the Asiatic wild ass, a species older than the horse and zebra.
According to the PMBSRR report, onagers were chosen from Jordan’s Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) also because there’s 50-60% similarity in the local vegetation of the two reserves.
“For the Persian Onagers, a major goal is to establish viable populations and restore the habitats that support them,” the report said. “Once populations have stabilized in protected, fenced zones of approximately 200 km2 [77 mi2], they will be selectively released into the larger 20,000 km2 [7,722 mi2] area in which more natural behaviour will be possible.”
The PMBSRR said it plans to add another stallion and two mares to the existing seven onagers to enable them to split the herd and ensure genetic variation.
Batool Ajlouni, president of the RSCN’s board of directors, said in the press release that the organization has been conserving the wild onager since 1982. She added the joint project with PMBSRR is meant to “foster real collaboration in conserving ecosystems, habitats, and ecological connectivity through best practices in protected area management and effective capacity-building programs.”
The onager reintroduction program will eventually include ecotourism and educational components to promote the animal’s conservation in Saudi Arabia, the report said.
Banner image of the recently born onager foal in Saudi Arabia, courtesy of Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve.
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