ORYX (Gr. opvE, a pickaxe, hence applied to the

See also:

• ANIMAL
• ANIMAL (Lat. animalis, from anima, breath, soul)

animal)  , the scientific name of a group of African antelopes of relatively large size with long straight or scimitar-shaped horns, which are present in both sexes, and long tufted tails . They are all desert animals . The true oryx of classical writers was probably the East and North-east African beisa-oryx (Oryx beisa), which is replaced in South Africa by the gemsbuck (oryx gazella) . In Northern Africa the group is represented by the scimitar-horned 0. leucoryx or 0. algazal, and in Arabia by the small white oryx (0. beatrix) . See ANTELOPE .