Kansas City, Missouri, January 02 2007 - Ten scimitar-horned oryxes from zoos in North America and Europe, including two from the Kansas City Zoo, are being re-introduced in Tunisia, where they have been wiped out from their native scrubland, according to a media report.

The two animals from Kansas City were among 23 that have been raised at the local zoo. They will be part of a new herd that conservationists hope will revive the breed in the wild, The Kansas City Star reported.

The scimitar-horned oryx, a member of the antelope family, has been pushed to extinction by a combination of automatic weapons and all-terrain vehicles, killed for sport because of their long, slender horns.

"When something as large as a scimitar-horned oryx can slip from the face of the earth without so much as a whimper or an outcry, things have gone terribly wrong," Bill Houston, who as assistant general curator at the St Louis Zoo is heavily involved in the re-introduction programme, told the newspaper.

The 10 animals will be mixed with some oryxes that were relocated to a Tunisian national park in the 1980s.

The new herd will initially be fenced in Dghoumes National Park, where they will be protected by the Tunisian government.

Conservationists hope to eventually remove the fences so the oryx population can migrate.

Tunisia supports the re-introduction, and neighboring Algeria also is interested in re-establishing the breed, the paper reported. Conservationists also hope to work out protection agreements with Libya, Niger and other north African countries.