There are three Oryxes’ species (some taxonomists says four), two of them in the African continent, Sahara Oryx (Oryx dammah), and Gemsbok (Oryx gazella), and the other one, Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx), in the Arabian Peninsula.

One African specie, which life in the north of the continent, Oryx dammah, is extinct in the wild according to ICUN. The other specie is Oryx gazella, and according some taxonomists there are three subspecies, that some authors consider as a different species: Oryx gazella ssp. beisa, Oryx gazella ssp. gazella, Oryx gazella ssp. callotis. Other taxonomists consider that ssp. beisa and ssp. callotis aret he same specie and ssp. gazella is another specie.

The geographic distribution of Oryx gazella is the following:

Oryx gazella ssp. beisa (East African Oryx or beisa Oryx): Djibouti Eritrea Ethiopia Kenya Somalia Sudan Uganda

Oryx gazella ssp. callotis: Kenya Tanzania

Oryx gazella ssp. gazella (Gemsbok): Angola Botswana Namibia South Africa Zimbabwe.

In the photo I show two exemplars of Oryx gazella ssp. beisa on guard expectant in ShabaNational Park.

Photographed in dry grassland of the Shaba national reserve