The oryx is built for the desert. Its white coat reflects the sun. Its hooves are wide and splayed, so they don't sink into soft sand. It can go for weeks without drinking water - it gets the moisture it needs from the plants it eats and from morning dew on the leaves.
In the 1970s the wild Arabian oryx had almost vanished. Only a tiny number survived in zoos. Sheikh Zayed, the founder of the UAE, helped start a project to bring them back. The remaining oryx were carefully bred, looked after, and then their grown-up children were released back into the desert.
It worked. Today there are about 1,200 wild Arabian oryx, plus thousands more in safe reserves across the UAE and other countries in the region. The Arabian oryx is now the official animal of the United Arab Emirates, and you can see it on the country's money.
There is an old story across the Arabian deserts that the oryx is the animal that the legend of the unicorn was based on. From the side, with its two horns lined up, it can look like it has only one. Sailors who saw a side-on oryx and only saw it once may have told the tale ever after.