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Environment

San Diego Zoo, Audubon Teaming Up To Save Endangered Species

Scimitar-horned oryx.
San Diego Zoo
Scimitar-horned oryx.

Two top zoos are creating a home where endangered antelope can roam and help repopulate their species on 1,000 acres in New Orleans.

More than two dozen species of hoofed animals and birds may live in the facility planned by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and New Orleans' Audubon Nature Institute.

Of 28 species under consideration, about half are endangered, vulnerable or near threatened.

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The new Alliance for Sustainable Wildlife will use most of the 1,400 acres of the Audubon Species Survival Center on New Orleans' west bank near the Mississippi River. Audubon Nature Institute Ron Forman says construction should start this year and continue into 2018, with the first animals moving into enclosures next year.