Addax antelope have been heavily hunted for their meat and skin. Since they are so heavily built they are not capable of great speeds and are easily overtaken by horses and dogs. The addax declined mainly because of motorized hunting with modern weapons by indigenous people. The expansion of pastoral agriculture has also been a factor. Because the Addax lives in such arid regions it can come into direct competition with domestic stock for the limited water and food resources available.
The addax inhabits areas of desert and semi-desert. The Addax once ranged through the greater part of the Sahara Desert, from the Atlantic coast to the Nile. It is a true desert antelope, able to obtain sufficient moisture from the meagre vegetation that it eats. It also has physiological adaptations to reduce water loss.
Addax are nearly extinct in the wild, having been eliminated from much of their original range. The Addax became extinct in Egypt around 1900. It has also been exterminated in Tunisia, southern Algeria and Western Sahara. The remnants of the Addax population dwell primarily in Chad, where civil unrest poses further threats.
The total World population of addax in is likely to be less than 500. The Algerian population in 1967 was 50 at most and by 1996 was extinct. In Chad the addax population in 1964 was 1400 at most falling to fewer than 200 in 1996. In Mauritania the population in 1996 was less than 50 from a population of 5000 in 1966.
The addax is considered as "Endangered" by the IUCN and is listed by CITES as "Appendix 1".