ERHC Energy Inc (ERHE)

[bruno1]

About our new animal friends:

The addax is gray-brown in winter and sandy to white in summer, with long, thin, spiral horns that slant back and upward. It stands about 1.1 m (3.5') at the shoulder and has large splayed hooves for walking in soft sand. It is the most desert-adapted of antelopes, being well adapted to heat, a diet of coarse grasses and the absence of water. It lives most of its life without drinking, deriving sufficient moisture from dew and the plants on which it feeds. The addax weighs up to 135 kg (300 lb). It is found in sandy and stony regions of the Sahara Desert, particularly dune regions. When grasses are absent, it browses acacia species and leguminous herbs. Because of the extreme aridity of its habitat, the addax moves over considerable distances in search of food. It is principally nocturnal and crepuscular and rests during the heat of the day. Currently it only occurs singly or in groups of up to 4.

http://www.animalinfo.org/species/artiperi/addanaso.htm


The scimitar-horned oryx, named for its scimitar-shaped horns, weighs up to 220 kg (480 lb). The scimitar-horned oryx inhabits the sub-desert lands - the transition zones between true desert (Sahara) and the Sahel, with a rainfall of between 75 and 150 mm (3 - 6"). It is found in rolling dunes, grassy steppes and wooded inter-dunal depressions. It very rarely penetrates either true desert or true Sahel country. The scimitar-horned oryx selectively feeds on a variety of foods - primarily grasses, but also legumes and leaves and the fruit of trees and shrubs. It is well adapted to arid lands, being able to go for 9 - 10 months without drinking water by utilizing the moisture in the vegetation it eats.

The scimitar-horned oryx is a gregarious, living in groups with a wide range of sizes. In the past, at certain times of the year, in areas of fresh pasture or surface water after rainfall, or during the wet season migrations, herds numbered up to 1000 or more. Herds of scimitar-horned oryx migrated north into the Sahara during the wet season and returned south at the beginning of the dry season.
The scimitar-horned oryx was formerly distributed from Mauritania in the west to the Red Sea in the east, but it declined drastically, apparently to extinction in the wild. Overhunting is the major cause of the decline, especially after motorized hunting with modern firearms began. Hunting has been carried out by nomads, oil surveyors, and military personnel, for meat, hides and sport. In addition, its habitat became increasingly drier and less suitable, due to long-term climate change as well as to overgrazing by livestock and man's destruction of tree cover. Furthermore, the increasing presence of livestock drove the oryx away from the pastures where it formerly obtained both food and water.

http://www.animalinfo.org/species/artiperi/oryxdamm.htm