Saudi poachers armed with guns and desert vehicles killed scores of endangered Arabian gazelles during a hunting safari that lasted several days in violation of local laws which strictly ban the killing of endangered creatures.
Social networks in the desert Gulf Kingdom showed massacred gazelles were taken away by car while others were hanged by trees as outrage spread.
Many gazelles also appeared to be stampeding as they ran away from an animal reserve in the central region to escape the human predators.
A YouTube film carried by Sabq newspaper showed some of the hunters were boasting about the killing of the gazelles, which have become among the most endangered species in the Arabian Peninsula because of massive hunting and development plans that were launched after oil was discovered some decades ago.