Endangered: The Majestic Addax Quiz

Answer: Herbivore

Like most antelope, the addax is a herbivore. They spend much of their time grazing looking for grass, shrubs, and indigenous legumes. Seeds are an important part of their diet, as it supplies the vast majority of the protein they consume.

Answer: Africa

You would have to travel to areas of northern Africa, where the addax is found in small pockets in Chad, Mali and Mauritania. At one time, the addax roamed freely from Arabia to the Atlantic coast of Africa. These majestic animals have been part of African cultures for thousands of years and images of them have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs.

Answer: Desert

The addax lives in the dry, arid desert regions of North Africa. They were once numerous throughout the Sahara desert. They have adapted well to this environment and are rarely seen drinking water. It is believed that they can live indefinitely without drinking water, as they obtain all necessary moisture from their food.

Answer: Long spiraling horns on both sexes

The addax has beautiful spiraling horns, which are found on both the males and the females and can be as long as 35 in. (90 cm). On the lower part of the horns are ring shaped ridges which smooth out as you progress towards the end of the horn. It is these beautiful horns that have led to this animal being hunted to critically endangered levels in the wild.

Answer: It changes color with the seasons

The addax has a coat that changes color with the seasons. Both sexes have short hair that is a light grayish-brown in the winter and white or light blond in the summer. They have a light x-shaped patch over their noses and prominent red nostrils. They are one of the lightest colored antelopes in the world.

Answer: False

The addax is one of the slowest members of the antelope family probably because of its physical adaptations to the sandy substrates it inhabits. It is also one of the heaviest antelopes and has legs which are best described as sturdy and somewhat stiff-kneed.

It has an unusual ambling gait while walking and places one foot behind the other leaving a single line of tracks. It has splayed hooves which keep it from sinking into the sand.

Answer: Resting in the shade

Addax are principally nocturnal and crepuscular, meaning they are most active during dawn, evening, and nighttime hours. In the heat of the day they are usually seen resting in any available shade or sitting in shallow holes they dig in the sand. There is very little water in the desert and so wallowing in the mud or eating fruit from trees is unlikely. Any lion found in the desert is looking for a way out and something to eat.

The addax would be easy prey, and at one time when it ranged across most of northern Africa it was a common prey species for lions, hyenas, cheetahs and leopards.

Answer: They have big square teeth somewhat like a cow

The addax is an unusual antelope, there is no doubt about it. But, they do not swim, nor do they climb trees, nor do they moo. However, they do have large, square shaped teeth that are very similar to a cows. They do not have canine teeth.

Answer: Poaching

For many endangered animals, habitat loss is the main cause for extinction. This is not the case with the addax. They have been hunted to the brink of extinction. While locals have hunted the animal for centuries, at one time they domesticated the addax and kept great herds of these gentle antelope.

They used them for milk and when they were passed breeding age, they were used for their meat. In the 20th century, trophy hunters shot them for their heads and magnificent horns, leaving thousands of pounds of meat for the buzzards.

Answer: True

In spite of the fact that there are less than 500 of these amazing animals in the wild, there are farms in Texas that breed addax so that they can be hunted by trophy hunters. As there are no legal restrictions, hunting season is all year around. There are more addax in zoos, game preserves and hunting ranches than there are in the wild. Sadly, few of these enterprises raise addax with the intention of releasing them into their indigenous range to prevent extinction in the wild.