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New Mexico’s best-known African antelope is the introduced gemsbok, also called African oryx (Oryx gazella). In the state’s desert, it eats grasses, yucca, buffalo gourds and mesquite bean pods, among other plants. A 2017 study in southcentral New Mexico found that gemsbok and American pronghorn shared 53% of the plant species they consumed. Their measured diet overlap and the gemsbok’s relatively stable diet during drought indicate a plausible competition risk, especially when forage is scarce. They do not, however, prove that oryx have caused broad declines in pronghorn or other native wildlife.
Which African antelope lives in New Mexico?
“Antelope” is a broad everyday term covering many unrelated species. The animal involved in New Mexico’s wildlife debate is the gemsbok, or African oryx (Oryx gazella), not African antelopes generally. The introduced population is concentrated in southern New Mexico, especially around White Sands Missile Range and the Tularosa Basin.
The National Park Service (NPS) says 95 oryx were released on the missile range and surrounding areas from 1969 through 1977 to establish a population for public hunting. NPS now describes thousands on the missile range. That figure is context from a park page last updated in 2023, not a newly published statewide census.
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Gemsbok are desert-adapted. NPS describes them as able to go for long periods without drinking, an ability that helps explain why they can persist in arid landscapes where water is widely separated. Their physiology does not eliminate competition: all large herbivores still need plant biomass, and drought can concentrate several species on the same nutritious patches.
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What do African antelopes eat in New Mexico?
For the New Mexico population, the most relevant answer is a mix of desert grasses, woody and succulent plants, forbs and seasonal fruits or seed pods. NPS lists the following local foods:
- Desert grasses: grass species provide grazing when growth is available.
- Yucca: leaves and other usable parts of Yucca species are important desert forage.
- Buffalo gourds: these desert plants and their available tissues are eaten when encountered.
- Mesquite bean pods: pods provide a seasonal, energy-rich food source.
NPS also describes the species’ African diet as including grasses, forbs and melons. The exact menu changes with rainfall, plant phenology and location; a list of foods is not a fixed recipe for every season or every animal.
Why the menu matters ecologically
Diet overlap matters when two herbivores use the same limited plants at the same time. Eating one plant species does not automatically mean direct harm to another animal. Competition becomes more likely when forage is scarce, the shared plants are nutritionally important and the animals cannot shift to alternatives.
How scientists compared gemsbok and pronghorn diets
The key New Mexico comparison is a 2017 study by James W. Cain, Mindi M. Avery, Colleen A. Caldwell, Laurie B. Abbott and Jerry L. Holechek. The authors collected fecal samples from introduced gemsbok and native American pronghorn in southcentral New Mexico. They used microhistological analysis, which identifies plant fragments in feces, to estimate diet composition and calculate diet overlap across seasons and weather conditions.
This approach shows what the animals actually consumed, rather than assuming that every plant available on the range was equally attractive. It also provides a dietary-quality signal through fecal nitrogen and fecal 2,6-diaminopimelic acid (FDAPA), a marker used in the study to compare nutritional conditions.
What the 2017 study found
Pronghorn changed their diet by season
Pronghorn relied mainly on shrubs during the cool-dry season, when shrubs made up 64.5% of the diet. During the warm-dry season, forbs were the largest component at 64.7%; during the warm-wet season, forbs accounted for 54.1%.
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In the drought comparison, shrubs became more important again, making up 50.7% of pronghorn diet. That shift suggests pronghorn were responding to reduced or altered availability of preferred plants.
Gemsbok used a more even mix
Gemsbok diets were distributed relatively evenly across the forage categories measured by the study, rather than being dominated by one category in the same way as pronghorn diets. This broader use of available plants can give a generalist feeder more options when rainfall changes which plants grow.
More than half of consumed plant species were shared
Fifty-three percent of the plant species identified in the diets of pronghorn and gemsbok were shared. “Shared” means the same plant species appeared in both diets; it does not mean each animal ate the plant in the same quantity or obtained the same nutrition from it.
The study’s overlap index was moderate
The researchers reported an average diet-overlap value of 0.44 ± 0.06 (standard error) in the warm-dry season of 2010 and 0.49 ± 0.06 in the warm-dry season of 2011. These are the study’s overlap-index values, not percentages. The increase occurred in the year classified as drought in the comparison.
| Finding | Reported value | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Plant species shared by both herbivores | 53% | More than half of the identified plant species occurred in both diets. |
| Warm-dry 2010 diet overlap | 0.44 ± 0.06 (SE) | Study overlap metric; not a percentage. |
| Warm-dry 2011 diet overlap | 0.49 ± 0.06 (SE) | Study overlap metric during the drought comparison year; not a percentage. |
| Shared key forage during drought | 50% of pronghorn diet; 40% of gemsbok diet | Combined contribution of four shared forage groups. |
Drought concentrated use of the same key plants
During drought, four shared forage groups—yucca (Yucca spp.), prickly pear (Opuntia spp.), globemallow (Sphaeralcea coccinea) and horsenettle (Solanum elaeagnifolium)—made up 50% of the pronghorn diet and 40% of the gemsbok diet. When two large herbivores depend on the same plants for such a large share of their intake, reduced plant production can increase the chance of competition.
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Between the warm-dry season of 2010 and drought year 2011, pronghorn fecal nitrogen declined by 26% and fecal FDAPA declined by 27%. The study reported little effect of drought on gemsbok dietary quality. In practical terms, the measured nutritional indicators worsened for pronghorn while remaining comparatively stable for gemsbok.
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How could gemsbok affect native wildlife?
Competition for forage is the strongest supported pathway
The clearest concern is competition with native herbivores, particularly pronghorn. If gemsbok and pronghorn consume many of the same plants, gemsbok could reduce the amount of forage available to pronghorn where food is limiting. The risk should be greatest during drought, when plant growth and nutritional quality are already depressed.
The study authors interpret their results as a possible drought advantage for gemsbok. Their conclusion, quoted in the USGS record, is: “Gemsbok can use forage with lower nutritional content giving them an advantage over pronghorn, particularly during drought periods.” This is an interpretation of diet and dietary-quality data, not a measurement that gemsbok caused a decline in pronghorn numbers.
Why drought could widen the difference
Pronghorn showed larger declines in the fecal indicators used for dietary quality, while gemsbok quality changed little. If droughts become more frequent or last longer, a species able to maintain nutrition on lower-quality forage could remain in better condition or continue reproducing when a more precipitation-dependent competitor struggles. The authors specifically note that pronghorn’s greater dependence on precipitation may matter under increasing drought frequency.
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The available evidence is not enough to say that gemsbok have displaced a particular native species, caused statewide wildlife declines or damaged every plant community they occupy. The focal comparison was pronghorn and gemsbok in one region, using field comparisons that included the 2010–2011 drought. Other herbivores may overlap less, use different habitat or respond differently to drought. Population surveys and longer-term demographic studies would be needed to connect diet overlap to changes in survival, reproduction or abundance.
What White Sands is doing about oryx
NPS says it is concerned about effects on White Sands National Park’s native plants and animals. Its management actions address both access to protected habitat and the number of animals on the surrounding landscape.
Annual hunting
NPS reports that annual oryx hunts began in 1974 and continue to help control and stabilize the population. Hunting can reduce abundance, but the sources reviewed do not provide a controlled comparison showing how much it changes pronghorn numbers, plant recovery or other wildlife outcomes.
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Boundary fencing
NPS reports that a 67-mile (108 km) boundary fence was erected in 1996 to keep oryx out of White Sands National Park. This is an exclusion measure: it reduces access to the park’s protected habitat rather than directly measuring oryx numbers across the wider Tularosa Basin.
These two measures should not be treated as interchangeable. A fence can protect a defined area even if animals remain numerous outside it; a hunt can reduce population abundance but does not by itself guarantee that animals will be absent from a particular park boundary. The documented evidence establishes that both tools are being used, not that one has been proven superior in a controlled test.
Could disease be an additional concern?
Disease is a separate possible pathway and should not be folded into the forage-competition findings. New Mexico’s wildlife agency reports that chronic wasting disease (CWD) has not been detected in species other than deer and elk in the state. The agency says limited CWD testing included oryx and antelope.
That statement is specific to CWD surveillance. It does not establish that oryx carry no pathogens, that transmission of every disease is impossible or that testing was comprehensive for all locations and diseases. Any disease-risk claim should identify the pathogen and the surveillance evidence rather than generalize from the CWD result.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What New Mexico’s import rule means
New Mexico’s rule for importing live non-domesticated animals requires a permit unless an exception applies. It creates categories that consider invasiveness and risk to native wildlife and sets importation conditions for covered animal families.
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How to interpret the evidence without overstating it
- Established: Introduced gemsbok occupy southern New Mexico; NPS lists their local foods; and a regional study measured shared plant use, overlap and dietary-quality changes.
- Plausible: Shared forage could create competition with pronghorn, with the greatest concern during drought when gemsbok maintained dietary quality better in the study.
- Not demonstrated by these data: A causal decline in pronghorn population size, statewide effects on native wildlife, or displacement of a named native species.
- Separate issue: CWD surveillance results do not answer every question about disease transmission.
The most accurate bottom line is conditional: gemsbok have the opportunity to compete with native herbivores because they eat many of the same desert plants, and the available study suggests they may be comparatively resilient during drought. Determining the scale of any population-level effect requires sustained monitoring of forage, gemsbok abundance, pronghorn vital rates and other native species across multiple years and habitats.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are all African antelopes found in New Mexico?
No. The introduced African antelope discussed here is the gemsbok, also called African oryx (Oryx gazella), concentrated in southern New Mexico.
Does diet overlap prove gemsbok are harming pronghorn?
No. The 2017 study measured shared plant use, overlap and dietary quality. It supports a competition concern and a possible drought advantage for gemsbok, but it did not measure a causal pronghorn population decline.
How does White Sands keep oryx out of the park?
NPS reports annual hunts that began in 1974 and a 67-mile (108 km) boundary fence built in 1996 to prevent oryx entry.
Has chronic wasting disease been found in New Mexico oryx?
New Mexico’s wildlife agency reports no CWD detections in species other than deer and elk and says limited testing included oryx and antelope. That finding is specific to CWD and does not rule out every pathogen.
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