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We measured metabolites of progesterone (progestins) in fecal samples collected from captive Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) females in postpartum (n=8), nonpregnant (n=9), and pregnant (n=8) reproductive stages between 1996 and 1998. We analyzed progestins using enzyme‐immunoassays for pregnanediol and 20‐oxo‐pregnanes, respectively. Progestin concentrations were elevated for 3 days after parturition and then decreased to basal anestrous concentrations. Ovarian cyclicity resumed 25±2.4 days after parturition in 5 of the 8 females monitored. In nonpregnant females, excretion of fecal progestins followed a cyclic pattern increasing 6‐ to 12‐fold from the follicular to the luteal phase. Fecal progestin concentrations allowed discrimination between pregnant and nonpregnant females after 3 months of gestation (

3 months) than during early pregnancy (0–3 months). These data were subsequently used to set criteria for designation of a cow as pregnant in 55 free‐ranging Arabian oryx in the reserve of Mahazat as‐Sayd, Saudi Arabia sampled in 1998–1999 and 2003. The proportion of pregnant and nonpregnant oryx correctly identified by the test was 81% and 83%, respectively, when using both progestin assays. Despite a limited sample size, our results provide evidence that fecal progestin analysis is a reliable noninvasive method to determine the reproductive status of captive Arabian oryx and that it also can provide reasonably accurate physiological indices of pregnancy status in free‐ranging specimens.