What it is
The addax is the only species in its genus, a white desert antelope that can live without free water. IUCN listed it as Critically Endangered in 2016, when fewer than 100 wild animals were thought to remain, mostly in Niger’s Tin Toumma. Noé camel patrols in 2023 still found only small groups there. Sahara Conservation’s October 2024 survey of the reintroduced Chad population estimated about 100 after a harsh dry-season die-off. Captive herds are large; they are not the Sahara remnant.
Range
Once the Sahara from Mauritania to Sudan. Wild remnants: eastern Niger. Reintroduced animals: Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim, Chad, and fenced sites in North Africa.
What happened
Motorised hunting, then oil roads and insecurity, emptied the desert. A 2019 reserve-boundary change in Niger left core addax habitat outside protection. Reintroduction is real and still fragile.
When / status
Critically Endangered now. Wild plus reintroduced animals remain in the low hundreds at most.
Human role
Hunting with vehicles, then extraction infrastructure in the last range.
Sources
IUCN Red List (Addax nasomaculatus, CR, 2016); Sahara Conservation 2024 annual report; Noé Tin Toumma monitoring.