Marwell Zoo is a semi-finalist in a bid to establish a World Scimitar-horned Oryx Day.

As part of Love Your Zoo Week, the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums sought nominations for overlooked animals deserving of a world awareness day.

Marwell Zoo nominated the Scimitar-horned Oryx, a previously wild extinct antelope renowned for its sword-like horns. Having won the first public poll, Marwell Zoo called for support in the semi-final vote, yesterday.

If you still need a reason to vote for these impressive animals, the zoo has provided its top 10 reasons to give you food for thought:

  1. Scimitar-horned Oryx love poking their noses into everything – especially camera traps resulting in some very amusing selfies.
  2. One of the first calves born at Marwell was a female called Jenny who was born on 15 March 1972.
  3. These impressive antelope can go up to 10 months without drinking water!
  4. The can smell rain from miles away and move towards it just as the grass starts to grow!
  5. Their horns can grow up to 1.5m long – longer than they are tall!
  6. Calves can run as fast as adults by the time they are 20 days old.
  7. In the wild, calves enjoy higher survival rates in areas where North African ostriches have been reintroduced. This could be because the elevated height of the ostrich (which grows to around 8ft when standing) means that they can spot African wolves sooner and the wolves lose the element of surprise.
  8. The Tuareg people of the Sahara associated scimitar-horned oryx with resilience and survival.
  9. The head of a scimitar-horned oryx featured in the first ever Marwell Zoo logo and is still part of the current logo used by the entrance to the zoo.
  10. Both males and females have horns