Hot air balloon Dubai cool weather

Hot air balloon Dubai cool weather

Hot air balloon Dubai first light

Hot air balloon Dubai cool weather might sound like a contradiction at first. Dubai conjures images of shimmering heat and sun-baked dunes, not scarves and crisp morning air.

Hot air balloon Dubai sky experience

  • Hot air balloon Dubai sunrise balloon
  • Hot air balloon Dubai memorable ride
  • Hot air balloon Dubai calm journey
Yet for a few golden months each year-roughly November through March-the city and its surrounding desert slip into a gentler mood. The air turns clear and cool, the winds calm, and the dunes glow with an almost velvety light at dawn. It's the season when a hot air balloon flight doesn't just make sense; it feels like the way the desert always wanted to be seen.


The day begins in the blue hour, when the city is still wiping sleep from its eyes. A van leaves the glitter of Sheikh Zayed Road behind and heads out toward the desert. Streetlights fade, the sky deepens with stars, and the silhouettes of ghaf trees and camel fences emerge in the headlights. Hot air balloon Dubai sky experience The coolness is immediate when you step onto the sand-the kind that makes your breath visible and your senses sharpen. Crew members unfurl immense canopies, and a roar of burners breaks the hush, sending warm breath into the envelope. You feel the temperature gradient on your face: cool cheeks, a gentle bloom of heat above the basket rim. Then, almost before you expect it, the ground releases you.


The first surprise is how quiet it is up there.

Hot air balloon Dubai aviation authority

  1. Hot air balloon Dubai first light
  2. Hot air balloon Dubai aviation authority
  3. Hot air balloon Dubai landing celebration
  4. Hot air balloon Dubai sky experience
  5. Hot air balloon Dubai safety certified
  6. Al Badayer hot air balloon
  7. Hot air balloon Dubai calm balloon
Without the rumble of engines, the desert reveals its softer sounds: a distant truck, a camel groaning awake, the faint whisper of air slipping past the fabric. Cool weather makes the air dense and clean, a boon for ballooning. Pilots love these months because the stable, gentle winds that settle over the sand at dawn mean a smoother, more predictable flight. The physics help, too: cooler air provides better lift for a given temperature inside the envelope, so the balloon responds with a kind of poised, unhurried grace. You rise with the sun, not rushing but unfolding, like a page turning.


As the horizon begins to blush, Dubai repositions itself.

Hot air balloon Dubai landing celebration

  1. Hot air balloon Dubai red dunes area
  2. Hot air balloon Dubai sky adventure
  3. Desert safari hot air balloon Dubai
  4. Hot air balloon Dubai must do activity
  5. Hot air balloon Dubai return transfer
The city's towers stand far off, a cluster of glass reeds. Closer in, the desert takes over. Dunes ripple like water frozen mid-surge. In winter light, their edges sharpen and the colors multiply-peach, copper, a sudden seam of charcoal where a windshadow holds. The Hajar Mountains bruise the eastern sky with indigo outlines. Early flights sometimes catch wildlife when the day is still cool: a small herd of Arabian oryx moving like ivory commas, gazelles skimming the low troughs between dunes, a caravan of camels led by a man on a quad bike. On certain mornings, you might even witness a falcon in action; some operators release a bird from the basket, and it loops around you in a perfect geometry of air and instinct, then returns to the falconer's glove as your shadow lengthens across the sand.


Comfort is the gift of cool weather. In summer, even dawn can feel heavy; in the winter months, the desert's chill wakes you up without punishing you. Layer a sweater over a shirt; pull on a hat. Closed shoes keep sand out and toes warm. Hot air balloon Dubai morning calm . The burners radiate a pleasant heat that drifts down to your shoulders every time the pilot feathers the flame. Instead of counting minutes until you land, you find yourself wanting the ride to linger. Photographers, especially, fall in love with winter's palette. The angle of the sun is low, the atmosphere is dry and clear, and colors separate cleanly. The city skyline, when visible, looks etched rather than hazed. Even smartphone cameras behave like they've leveled up.


There's also a psychological ease that comes with cool weather. People who are nervous about heights often discover that a balloon feels less like being up high and more like floating inside a moving balcony. The basket is steady, the motion gentle. In the cool months, that steadiness is amplified: the air at sunrise is calm, thermals are minimal, and landings tend to be softer. Pilots in Dubai are licensed under the UAE's civil aviation regulations, briefings are thorough, and the ritual of it-loading, listening, lifting-settles the jitters. By the time you're aloft, your curiosity has usually outrun your fear.


Much of ballooning here is about timing. Operators aim for first light because deserts wake early; as the sun climbs, winds pick up, and thermals start to stir the air. Winter compresses the sweet spot when those conditions are perfect. It also expands your day. You'll touch down after 45 to 60 minutes in the sky, sometimes more if the winds are extra kind, and the whole experience-hotel pickup, briefing, flight, landing, and a simple breakfast back on firm ground-takes three to four hours. You're back in the city as it's revving up, carrying the smell of propane and sand, and the rest of the day feels like bonus time.


Then there's the way cool weather reframes Dubai itself. It's tempting to think of the city as a triumph of glass and ambition, but the balloon shows you its original canvas. You see why travelers once navigated by dune lines and stars, why falcons are still revered, why the desert is both scarcity and abundance. In cool air, that story is easier to hear. The heat no longer shouts over the top of it.


If you're planning, think practically. Book early in peak months; winter weekends fill fast. Wear layers you can shed once the sun is up. Bring sunglasses and a spare battery for your phone or camera-cold can nibble at charge. Skip heavy bags; baskets are cozy, and space matters. If you have back or knee issues, or you're pregnant, check restrictions before you commit. And accept that the desert calls the shots: weather can ground flights, and that's part of the contract with the sky.


In the end, a hot air balloon in Dubai during cool weather isn't just a seasonal upgrade. It's a recalibration of pace and perspective. The city remains itself-energetic, vertical, ever-changing-but for an hour you trade its angles for arcs, its noise for hush, its noon for dawn. You return with sand on your shoes and a new map in your head, one drawn in soft lines. And when someone says Dubai is only heat and hustle, you'll have an answer that begins with night-cold air, a flare of flame, and the slow, sure feeling of leaving the ground.

Sunrise seen over the Atlantic Ocean through cirrus clouds on the Jersey Shore at Spring Lake, New Jersey, U.S.

Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning,[1] at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon.

Terminology

[edit]

Although the Sun appears to "rise" from the horizon, it is actually the Earth's motion that causes the Sun to appear. The illusion of a moving Sun results from Earth observers being in a rotating reference frame; this apparent motion caused many cultures to have mythologies and religions built around the geocentric model, which prevailed until astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus formulated his heliocentric model in the 16th century.[2]

Architect Buckminster Fuller proposed the terms "sunsight" and "sunclipse" to better represent the heliocentric model, though the terms have not entered into common language.[3][4]

Astronomically, sunrise occurs for only an instant, namely the moment at which the upper limb of the Sun appears tangent to the horizon.[1] However, the term sunrise commonly refers to periods of time both before and after this point:

Towers of the Church of the Assumption in Bielany-Kraków over the Wolski Forest just after sunrise.
  • Twilight, the period in the morning during which the sky is brightening, but the Sun is not yet visible. The beginning of morning twilight is called astronomical dawn.
  • The period after the Sun rises during which striking colors and atmospheric effects are still seen.[5] Civil twilight being the brightest, while astronomical twilight being the darkest.

Measurement

[edit]

Angle with respect to horizon

[edit]
This diagram of the Sun at sunrise (or sunset) shows the effects of atmospheric refraction.

The stage of sunrise known as false sunrise actually occurs before the Sun truly reaches the horizon because Earth's atmosphere refracts the Sun's image. At the horizon, the average amount of refraction is 34 arcminutes, though this amount varies based on atmospheric conditions.[1]

Also, unlike most other solar measurements, sunrise occurs when the Sun's upper limb, rather than its center, appears to cross the horizon. The apparent radius of the Sun at the horizon is 16 arcminutes.[1]

These two angles combine to define sunrise to occur when the Sun's center is 50 arcminutes below the horizon, or 90.83° from the zenith.[1]

Time of day

[edit]
Time of sunrise in 2008 for Libreville, Gabon. Near the equator, the variation of the time of sunrise is mainly governed by the variation of the equation of time. See here for the sunrise chart of a different location.

The timing of sunrise varies throughout the year and is also affected by the viewer's latitude and longitude, altitude, and time zone. These changes are driven by the axial tilt of Earth, daily rotation of the Earth, the planet's movement in its annual elliptical orbit around the Sun, and the Earth and Moon's paired revolutions around each other. The analemma can be used to make approximate predictions of the time of sunrise.

In late winter and spring, sunrise as seen from temperate latitudes occurs earlier each day, reaching its earliest time shortly before the summer solstice; although the exact date varies by latitude. After this point, the time of sunrise gets later each day, reaching its latest shortly after the winter solstice, also varying by latitude. The offset between the dates of the solstice and the earliest or latest sunrise time is caused by the eccentricity of Earth's orbit and the tilt of its axis, and is described by the analemma, which can be used to predict the dates.

Variations in atmospheric refraction can alter the time of sunrise by changing its apparent position. Near the poles, the time-of-day variation is extreme, since the Sun crosses the horizon at a very shallow angle and thus rises more slowly.[1]

Accounting for atmospheric refraction and measuring from the leading edge slightly increases the average duration of day relative to night. The sunrise equation, however, which is used to derive the time of sunrise and sunset, uses the Sun's physical center for calculation, neglecting atmospheric refraction and the non-zero angle subtended by the solar disc.

Location on the horizon

[edit]
Timelapse video of twilight and sunrise in Gjøvik, Norway in February 2021

Neglecting the effects of refraction and the Sun's non-zero size, whenever sunrise occurs, in temperate regions it is always in the northeast quadrant from the March equinox to the September equinox and in the southeast quadrant from the September equinox to the March equinox.[6] Sunrises occur approximately due east on the March and September equinoxes for all viewers on Earth.[7] Exact calculations of the azimuths of sunrise on other dates are complex, but they can be estimated with reasonable accuracy by using the analemma.

The figure on the right is calculated using the solar geometry routine in Ref.[8] as follows:

  1. For a given latitude and a given date, calculate the declination of the Sun using longitude and solar noon time as inputs to the routine;
  2. Calculate the sunrise hour angle using the sunrise equation;
  3. Calculate the sunrise time, which is the solar noon time minus the sunrise hour angle in degree divided by 15;
  4. Use the sunrise time as input to the solar geometry routine to get the solar azimuth angle at sunrise.

Hemispheric symmetry

[edit]

An interesting feature in the figure on the right is apparent hemispheric symmetry in regions where daily sunrise and sunset actually occur.

This symmetry becomes clear if the hemispheric relation in to the sunrise equation is applied to the x- and y-components of the solar vector presented in Ref.[8]

 

Appearance

[edit]
The first sunrise in 2025 of Jabalpur, caught from a rooftop.

Colors

[edit]
Sunrise in Lisbon seen from an airplane. Note refraction of colors by both the atmosphere and clouds.

Air molecules and airborne particles scatter white sunlight as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere. This is done by a combination of Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering.[9]

As a ray of white sunlight travels through the atmosphere to an observer, some of the colors are scattered out of the beam by air molecules and airborne particles, changing the final color of the beam the viewer sees. Because the shorter wavelength components, such as blue and green, scatter more strongly, these colors are preferentially removed from the beam.[9]

At sunrise and sunset, when the path through the atmosphere is longer, the blue and green components are removed almost completely, leaving the longer-wavelength orange and red hues seen at those times. The remaining reddened sunlight can then be scattered by cloud droplets and other relatively large particles to light up the horizon red and orange.[10] The removal of the shorter wavelengths of light is due to Rayleigh scattering by air molecules and particles much smaller than the wavelength of visible light (less than 50 nm in diameter).[11][12] The scattering by cloud droplets and other particles with diameters comparable to or larger than the sunlight's wavelengths (more than 600 nm) is due to Mie scattering and is not strongly wavelength-dependent. Mie scattering is responsible for the light scattered by clouds, and also for the daytime halo of white light around the Sun (forward scattering of white light).[13][14][15]

Sunset colors are typically more brilliant than sunrise colors, because the evening air contains more particles than morning air.[9][10][12][15] Ash from volcanic eruptions, trapped within the troposphere, tends to mute sunset and sunrise colors, while volcanic ejecta that is instead lofted into the stratosphere (as thin clouds of tiny sulfuric acid droplets), can yield beautiful post-sunset colors called afterglows and pre-sunrise glows. A number of eruptions, including those of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 and Krakatoa in 1883, have produced sufficiently high stratospheric sulfuric acid clouds to yield remarkable sunset afterglows (and pre-sunrise glows) around the world. The high altitude clouds serve to reflect strongly reddened sunlight still striking the stratosphere after sunset, down to the surface.

Optical illusions and other phenomena

[edit]
This is a false sunrise, a very particular kind of parhelion.
  • Atmospheric refraction causes the Sun to be seen while it is still below the horizon.
  • Light from the lower edge of the Sun's disk is refracted more than light from the upper edge. This reduces the apparent height of the Sun when it appears just above the horizon. The width is not affected, so the Sun appears wider than it is high.
  • The Sun appears larger at sunrise than it does while higher in the sky, in a manner similar to the Moon illusion.
  • The Sun appears to rise above the horizon and circle the Earth, but it is actually the Earth that is rotating, with the Sun remaining fixed. This effect results from the fact that an observer on Earth is in a rotating reference frame.
  • Occasionally a false sunrise occurs, demonstrating a very particular kind of parhelion belonging to the optical phenomenon family of halos.
  • Sometimes just before sunrise or after sunset, a green flash can be seen. This is an optical phenomenon in which a green spot is visible above the Sun, usually for no more than a second or two.[16]
 

See also

[edit]
  • Analemma
  • Dawn
  • Day
  • Daytime
  • Dusk
  • Earth's shadow, visible at sunrise
  • First sunrise
  • Golden hour (photography)
  • Heliacal rising
  • Noon
  • Red sky at morning
  • Sunrise equation
  • Sunset

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f "Rise, Set, and Twilight Definitions". U.S. Naval Observatory. Archived from the original on September 27, 2019.
  2. ^ "The Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Top 10 Science Mistakes". Science Channel. Archived from the original on November 18, 2012.
  3. ^ Griffith, Evan. "Celebrating word making: Buckminster Fuller's take on sunrise and sunset". Notes For Creators. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
  4. ^ Skene, Gordon (22 November 2020). "Buckminster Fuller Has A Few Words For You - 1972 - Ford Hall Forum Lecture". Past Daily. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
  5. ^ "Sunrise". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 7 February 2024.
  6. ^ Masters, Karen (October 2004). "How does the position of Moonrise and Moonset change? (Intermediate)". Curious About Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer. Cornell University Astronomy Department. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
  7. ^ "Where Do the Sun and Stars Rise?". Stanford Solar Center. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  8. ^ a b Zhang, T., Stackhouse, P.W., Macpherson, B., and Mikovitz, J.C., 2021. A solar azimuth formula that renders circumstantial treatment unnecessary without compromising mathematical rigor: Mathematical setup, application and extension of a formula based on the subsolar point and atan2 function. Renewable Energy, 172, 1333-1340. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.03.047
  9. ^ a b c K. Saha (2008). The Earth's Atmosphere – Its Physics and Dynamics. Springer. p. 107. ISBN 978-3-540-78426-5.
  10. ^ a b B. Guenther, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Modern Optics. Vol. 1. Elsevier. p. 186.
  11. ^ "Blue Sky". Hyperphysics, Georgia State University. Archived from the original on April 27, 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
  12. ^ a b Craig Bohren (ed.), Selected Papers on Scattering in the Atmosphere, SPIE Optical Engineering Press, Bellingham, WA, 1989
  13. ^ Corfidi, Stephen F. (February 2009). "The Colors of Twilight and Sunset". Norman, OK: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center.
  14. ^ "Atmospheric Aerosols: What Are They, and Why Are They So Important?". NASA. Aug 1, 1996. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012.
  15. ^ a b E. Hecht (2002). Optics (4th ed.). Addison Wesley. p. 88. ISBN 0-321-18878-0.
  16. ^ "Red Sunset, Green Flash". HyperPhysics Concepts - Georgia State University. Archived from the original on December 15, 2022.
[edit]
  • Full physical explanation of sky color, in simple terms
  • An Excel workbook with VBA functions for sunrise, sunset, solar noon, twilight (dawn and dusk), and solar position (azimuth and elevation)
  • Sun data for various cities
  • Sunrise and sunset times in all popular cities

 

 

Arabian oryx
Male in Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve
Conservation status
Vulnerable
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
CITES Appendix I[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Hippotraginae
Genus: Oryx
Species:
O. leucoryx
Binomial name
Oryx leucoryx
(Pallas, 1777)

The Arabian oryx or white oryx (Oryx leucoryx) is a medium-sized antelope with a distinct shoulder bump, long, straight horns, and a tufted tail.[2] It is a bovid, and the smallest member of the genus Oryx, native to desert and steppe areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabian oryx was extinct in the wild by the early 1970s, but was saved in zoos and private reserves, and was reintroduced into the wild starting in 1980.

In 1986, the Arabian oryx was classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List, and in 2011, it was the first animal to revert to vulnerable status after previously being listed as extinct in the wild. It is listed in CITES Appendix I. In 2016, populations were estimated at 1,220 individuals in the wild, including 850 mature individuals, and 6,000–7,000 in captivity worldwide.[1]

Etymology

[edit]

The taxonomic name Oryx leucoryx is from the Greek orux (gazelle or antelope) and leukos (white). The Arabian oryx is also called the white oryx in English, dishon in Hebrew,[3] and is known as maha, wudhaihi, baqar al-wahsh, and boosolah in Arabic.[4]

Taxonomy

[edit]

The name "oryx" was introduced by Peter Simon Pallas in 1767 for the common eland as Antilope oryx. He also scientifically described the Arabian oryx as Oryx leucoryx, giving its range as "Arabia, and perhaps Libya". In 1816, Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville subdivided the antelope group, adopted Oryx as a genus name, and changed the species name Antilope oryx to Oryx gazella. In 1826, Martin Lichtenstein confused matters by transferring the name Oryx leucoryx to the scimitar oryx, now Oryx dammah. The Zoological Society of London obtained the first living individual in Europe in 1857. Not realizing this might be the Oryx leucoryx of previous authors, John Edward Gray proposed calling it Oryx beatrix after Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom. Oldfield Thomas renamed the scimitar oryx as Oryx algazal in 1903 and gave the Arabian oryx its original name.[4]

Description

[edit]
In Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve in Israel

The Arabian oryx' coat is an almost luminous white, the undersides and legs are brown, and black stripes occur where the head meets the neck, on the forehead, on the nose, and going from the horn down across the eye to the mouth. Both sexes have long, straight or slightly curved, ringed horns which are 0.61–1.49 m (2–4.9 ft). It stands between 0.79 and 1.25 m (2.6 and 4.1 ft) tall at the shoulder and typically weighs between 220 to 460 lb (100 to 209 kg).[5][2]

Distribution and habitat

[edit]

Historically, the Arabian oryx probably ranged throughout most of the Middle East. In the early 1800s, they could still be found in the Sinai, Palestine, the Transjordan, much of Iraq, and most of the Arabian Peninsula. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, their range was pushed back towards Saudi Arabia, and by 1914, only a few survived outside that country. A few were reported in Jordan into the 1930s, but by the mid-1930s, the only remaining populations were in the Nafud Desert in northwestern Saudi Arabia and the Rub' al Khali in the south.[2]

In the 1930s, Arabian princes and oil company clerks started hunting Arabian oryxes with automobiles and rifles. Hunts grew in size, and some were reported to employ as many as 300 vehicles. By the middle of the 20th century, the northern population was effectively extinct.[2] The last Arabian oryx in the wild before reintroduction was reported in 1972.[6]

Arabian oryxes prefer to range in gravel deserts or hard sand, where their speed and endurance will protect them from most predators and hunters on foot. In the sand deserts in Saudi Arabia, they used to be found in the hard sand areas of the flats between the softer dunes and ridges.[2]

Arabian oryxes have been reintroduced to Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, and Jordan. A small population was introduced on Hawar Island, Bahrain, and large semi-managed populations at several sites in Qatar and the UAE. The total reintroduced population is now estimated to be around 1,000. This puts the Arabian oryx well over the threshold of 250 mature individuals needed to qualify for endangered status. However, the majority of the population is concentrated in Saudi Arabia.[1]

Behaviour and ecology

[edit]

The Arabian oryx rests during the heat of the day. A herd in Oman can range over 3,000 km2 (1,200 sq mi). Packs are of mixed sex and usually comprise between 2 and 15 induvials, though herds of up to 100 have been reported. Arabian oryxes are generally not aggressive toward one another, which allows herds to exist peacefully for some time.[7]

Feeding

[edit]

The diets of the Arabian oryx consist mainly of grasses, but it eats a large variety of vegetation, including buds, herbs, fruit, tubers and roots. Herds follow infrequent rains to eat the new plants that grow afterwards. They can go for several weeks without water.[7] In Oman, it primarily eats grasses of the genus Stipagrostis, flowers from Stipagrostis plants appeared highest in crude protein and water, while leaves seemed a better food source with other vegetation.[8]

Behavior

[edit]

When the Arabian oryx is not wandering its habitat or eating, it digs shallow depressions in the soft ground under shrubs or trees for resting. They can detect rainfall from a distance and follow in the direction of fresh plant growth. The number of individuals in a herd can vary greatly (up to 100 have been reported occasionally), but the average is 10 or fewer individuals.[9] Bachelor herds do not occur, and single territorial males are rare. Herds establish a straightforward hierarchy that involves all females and males above the age of about seven months.[10] Arabian oryxes tend to maintain visual contact with other herd members, with subordinate males taking positions between the main body of the herd and the outlying females. If separated, males will search areas where the herd last visited, settling into a solitary existence until the herd's return. Where water and grazing conditions permit, male Arabian oryxes establish territories. Bachelor males are solitary.[11] A dominance hierarchy is created within the herd by posturing displays, which avoid the danger of serious injury their long, sharp horns could potentially inflict. Males and females use their horns to defend the sparse territorial resources against interlopers.[12]

Adaptations for desert environments

[edit]

The Arabian oryx changes its physiology and behaviour at different times of the year to increase survival during times when food and water are in limited supply. During the summer, when droughts are common in the desert environments where it lives, the Arabian oryx will drastically reduce its minimal fasting metabolic rate by lying completely inactive beneath shade trees during the day and ranging over smaller areas at night to forage.[13] By letting its body temperature rise during the heat of the day, it uses less evaporative cooling and retains more body water, and at night, the cool night air lowers its temperature back to the normal range.[14] The oryx's arterial blood temperature is partly powered by a network of small arterial vessels with a large surface area called the rete mirabile, which branches from the two carotid arteries to the brain and allows for heat exchange between warm arterial blood and the cooler blood in the sinus cavities.[14] Because of these changes in behaviour and physiology, it was shown that Arabian oryx can reduce their urine volume, faecal water loss, and resting metabolic rate by at least 50%.[15]

The Arabian wolf is the Arabian oryx's only predator. In captivity and safe conditions in the wild, it has a maximum life span of up to 20 years.[11] In periods of drought, though, their life expectancy may be significantly reduced by malnutrition and dehydration. Other causes of death include fights between males, snakebites, disease, and drowning during floods.[16]

Importance to humans

[edit]
South Arabian fragment of a stela, depicts a reclining ibex and three Arabian oryx heads. The ibex was one of the most sacred animals in South Arabia, while the oryx antelope was associated with the god Attar, 5th century BC.

The Arabian oryx is the national animal of Jordan, Oman, the United Arab Emirates,[17] Bahrain, and Qatar.[18]

The Arabian oryx is also the namesake of several businesses on the Arabian peninsula, notably Al Maha Airways and Al Maha Petroleum.

In the King James Version of the Bible, the word re'em is translated as 'unicorn'. In Modern Hebrew, the name re'em lavan, meaning white oryx, is used in error for the scimitar-horned oryxes living in the sanctuary Yotvata Hai Bar near Eilat.[19] The scimitar oryx is called re'em Sahara. The Arabian name ri'ïm is the equivalent of the Hebrew name re'em, also meaning white oryx, suggesting a borrowing from the Early Modern Era.

A Qatari oryx named "Orry" was chosen as the official games mascot for the 2006 Asian Games in Doha,[20] and is shown on tailfins of planes belonging to Middle Eastern airline Qatar Airways.

Unicorn myth

[edit]

The myth of the one-horned unicorn may be based on oryxes that have lost one horn. Aristotle and Pliny the Elder held that the oryx was the unicorn's "prototype".[21] From certain angles, the oryx may seem to have one horn rather than two,[22][23] and given that its horns are made from hollow bone that cannot be regrown, if an Arabian oryx were to lose one of its horns, for the rest of its life, it would have only one.[21]

Another source for the concept may have originated from the translation of the Hebrew word re'em into Greek as μονόκερως, monokeros, in the Septuagint.[24] In Psalm 22:21, the word karen, meaning horn, is written in singular. The Roman Catholic Vulgata and the Douay-Rheims Bible translated re'em as rhinoceros; other translations are names for a wild bull, wild oxen, buffalo, or gaur, but in some languages, a word for unicorn is maintained. The Arabic translation alrim is the correct choice etymologically, meaning 'white oryx'.[25]

Conservation

[edit]
Arabian oryx in Al Ain Zoo

The Phoenix Zoo and the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society of London (now Fauna and Flora International), with financial help from the World Wildlife Fund, are credited with saving the Arabian oryx from extinction. In 1962, these groups started the first captive-breeding herd in any zoo, at the Phoenix Zoo, sometimes referred to as "Operation Oryx".[26][27] Starting with nine animals, the Phoenix Zoo has had over 240 successful births. From Phoenix, Arabian oryxes were sent to other zoos and parks to start new herds.

In 1968, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, out of concern for the land's wildlife, particularly ungulates such as the Arabian oryx, founded the Al Ain Zoo to conserve them.[28]

Arabian oryxes were hunted to extinction in the wild by 1972. By 1980, the number of Arabian oryxes in captivity had increased to the point that Arabian oryx reintroduction was started. The first release, to Oman, was attempted with Arabian oryxes from the San Diego Wild Animal Park.[6] Although numbers in Oman have declined, there are now wild populations in Saudi Arabia and Israel,[29][30] as well. One of the largest populations is found in Mahazat as-Sayd Protected Area, a large, fenced reserve in Saudi Arabia, covering more than 2,000 km2 (770 sq mi).[1]

On June 28, 2007, Oman's Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was the first site ever to be removed from the UNESCO World Heritage List. UNESCO's reason for this was the Omani government's decision to open 90% of the site to oil prospecting. The Arabian oryx population on the site has been reduced from 450 in 1996 to only 65 in 2007. At that time, there were fewer than four breeding pairs left on the site.[31][needs update]

In June 2011, the Arabian oryx was relisted as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. The IUCN estimated there were more than 1,200 Arabian oryx in the wild as of 4 December 2020 2016, with 6,000–7,000 held in captivity worldwide in zoos, preserves, and private collections. Some of these are in large, fenced enclosures (free-roaming), including those in Syria (Al Talila), Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE.[1] This is the first time the IUCN has reclassified a species as vulnerable after it had been listed as extinct in the wild.[32] The Arabian oryx is also listed in CITES Appendix I.[1]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group (2017). "Oryx leucoryx". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017 e.T15569A50191626. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T15569A50191626.en. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e Talbot, L. M. (1960). A Look at Threatened Species. The Fauna Preservation Society. pp. 84–91.
  3. ^ Slifkin, Nathan, The Torah encyclopedia of the Animal kingdom, vol.1, OU Press, New York, 2015, pp.272-275
  4. ^ a b "Conservation Programme for Arabian Oryx: Taxonomy & description". National Wildlife Research Center. 2007. Archived from the original on 2011-09-04. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  5. ^ "Oryx". Animals & Plants. San Diego Zoo. Retrieved 2023-03-26.
  6. ^ a b Stanley-Price, Mark (July–August 1982). "The Yalooni Transfer". Saudi Aramco World. Archived from the original on 2011-06-10. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
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  32. ^ Platt, John (17 June 2011). "Arabian Oryx Makes History as First Species to Be Upgraded from "Extinct in the Wild" to "Vulnerable"". scientificamerican.com. Retrieved 20 June 2011.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Silverberg, Robert (1967). The Auk, the Dodo, and the Oryx: Vanished and Vanishing Creatures. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. LCCN 67002554. L.C. Card AC 67-10476.
[edit]
  • Images and movies of the Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) at Arkive
  • Living Desert article
  • Arabian Oryx at Al Wabra Wildlife Preserve
  • Oryx leucoryx on Animal Diversity Web
  • Oryx leucoryx on Mammal Species of the World

 

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https://cappadociahotballoon.com/about-us/

You can book a Hot Air Balloon experience online through the official website or customer support.

A Hot Air Balloon typically flies up to four thousand feet offering wide panoramic desert views.

Yes guests are allowed to take photos during the Hot Air Balloon flight and the views are perfect for photography.