Stock Photo - Jan. 01, 1962 - Desert Massacre To Please Harem: Sixteen oryx, giant members of the antelope family and some of the world's rarest animals, were mown down by machine-gun fire during a massacre organized by a desert chief to boost his reputation with the women of his harem. Before the mass killing in Arabia only about 40 oryx were thought to be still in existence - including one prized specimen at the London Zoo. The original herds shrank because among Arabs the killing of an oryx is supposed to be a mark of a man's virility. The man with 16 to his credit was named yesterday as a member of the al-Thanik family, rulers of water, an oil skeikdom in the Persian Gulf. Photo shows The London Zoo oryx this morning. (Credit Image: © Keystone Press Agency/Keystone USA via ZUMAPRESS.com)