AnimalsDesert
Oryx Fun facts for kids
Oryx leucoryx
The oryx lives in sandy deserts in Arabia and eats grass and roots it digs up.
- Where it lives
- in sandy deserts in Arabia
- What it eats
- grass and roots it digs up
- How big it is
- about as big as a small pony
Fun facts about the oryx
The ones Sammy likes best. She tells them in the game, too.
Seen from the side, its two long straight horns can look like one, which may be how the unicorn story began.
It can go for weeks without drinking, getting water from plants, dew and juicy roots.
It seems to know when rain falls far away, and walks a long way toward storm clouds to find fresh food.
Oryx once lived only in zoos, and it was the first animal ever to come back from that to the wild.
Its wide, spread out hooves work like snowshoes on soft sand.
In the daytime it lets its body warm up and cools down at night, so it saves water instead of panting.
Babies are born sandy brown and only turn white with dark markings as they grow up.
On hot days it scrapes a little hollow in the shade of a bush and lies in the cooler sand.
Riddle
Can a friend guess it?
Read the clues to someone, one at a time, without saying the animal. How many clues do they need? Fewer is better, just like in the game.
I live in a small herd in a hot, dry land of sand and stones.
I can go for weeks without drinking, because I get water from plants and dew.
I can tell when rain falls far away, and I walk a long way toward the clouds.
I was born sandy brown, and my coat only turned white as I grew up.
I'm a white antelope, and from the side my two long straight horns look like one.
Sammy might be thinking of an oryx.
In Thought Zoo, Sammy picks an animal and you ask her yes-or-no questions to find it. You'll find the oryx in the Desert adventure.
Play the DesertComing to iPad, iPhone and Android on 12 January 2027
