Addax

Addax (Addax nasomaculatus)

Critically Endangered!

The addax is gray-brown in the winter and sandy to white in the summer. It has a white facial patch topped by a chestnut forehead tuft and spiral horns. They are approximately 5-5 1/2 ft long and they weigh 130-280 lbs. It is the most desert-adapted of antelopes, it's diet consists of coarse grasses. An addax can survive most of it's life without water, because it receives sufficient hydration from the dew and the plants it eats.

The addax is critically endangered due to hunting. When they were not endangered the addax would travel in a mixed herd of up to 20 and was led by an older male. But due to the amount of hunting the addax now either lives alone or in small groups of 2-4. Many people think the only reason the addax has been able to survive at all, is because of it's ability to live in extremely harsh conditions, including extensive areas of sand dunes, where hunters are unable to enter.

There are approximately 128-200 left in the wild today; they can be foundnd in northwest Africa. A large extent of the addax population has been kept and bred in captivity. In captivity the oldest addax recorded was 25 years old.

The information provided above can be found in Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide To The World's Wildlife and at http://www.animalinfo.org/species/artiperi/addanaso.htm
If you have any questions about the Addax please post them in the comment section and I will do my best to answer them in a timely manner.