January 31, 1982 was a milestone in the long struggle to save Oryx leucoryx from extinction in the wild. On that day ten Arabian oryx, nine of them born and bred in the United States, were released into the open desert in Oman. The release was a triumph for Operation Oryx, launched almost 20 years earlier, in April 1962, by the Fauna Preservation Society, as it then was; in Oman it was also a day of rejoicing for the Harasis tribe, who will once again guard their white oryx in the Jidda al Harasis, and for Sultan Qaboos bin Said, whose generous support and cooperation made the return possible.