Taking your baby out for the very first time is always a stressful experience.

So when new scimita horned oryx mum Ramina felt a three-tonne rhinoceros was getting too close to her daughter Phoenix she decided to make a stand.

Despite being faced by Njanu, an opponent 15-times heavier, the protective antelope refused to take a backward step and came horn-to-horn with the massive rhino.

Keeper Dan Gray said: “Phoenix is Ramina’s seventh calf but her birth was not an easy one. In fact I had to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation soon after she was born as she had stopped breathing.

“Happily Phoenix made a full recovery and that was why she was allowed out in to the park properly, however it may be that Ramina was even more protective than usual as a result and decided to stand her ground.

“To be honest Njanu was almost certainly just being inquisitive and meant no harm at all but I guess Ramina didn’t know that and she displayed real maternal courage to stand up to him so bravely.”

Originally from North Africa, the antelope is thought to have gone extinct in the wild in 1999 – due to a combination of hunting and loss of habitat.

The Wiltshire Safari Park is part of an international captive breeding programme for the species with numbers worldwide now thought to be in excess of 1,500.

Re-introduction programmes are currently taking place in Tunisia, Morocco and Senegal with captive-bred animals being released into fenced reserves.

The scimitar horned oryx gets its name from its magnificent, scimitar-shaped horn which can measure up to 1.5 metres in length.

Some experts believe oryx may be the basis for the legendary unicorn. Viewed from the side it can look like the antelope have only a single horn.

As the horns are made from hollow bone they can also break off quite easily and do not grow back – making one horned oryx a relatively common occurrence.

Ancient Greeks including Aristotle and Pliny the Elder both thought the oryx was the ‘prototype’ for the unicorn myth.