diff --git a/doc/Changelog b/doc/Changelog
index 240e25814..a9c23af67 100644
--- a/doc/Changelog
+++ b/doc/Changelog
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 31 May 2010: Wouter
 	- Fix AD flag handling, it could in some cases mistakenly copy the AD 
 	  flag from upstream servers.
+	- alloc_special_obtain out of memory is not a fatal error any more,
+	  enabling unbound to continue longer in out of memory conditions.
 
 28 May 2010: Wouter
 	- iana portlist updated.
diff --git a/util/alloc.c b/util/alloc.c
index 62cbec04b..49fa4f343 100644
--- a/util/alloc.c
+++ b/util/alloc.c
@@ -217,8 +217,10 @@ alloc_special_obtain(struct alloc_cache* alloc)
 	}
 	/* allocate new */
 	prealloc(alloc);
-	if(!(p = (alloc_special_t*)malloc(sizeof(alloc_special_t))))
-		fatal_exit("alloc_special_obtain: out of memory");
+	if(!(p = (alloc_special_t*)malloc(sizeof(alloc_special_t)))) {
+		log_err("alloc_special_obtain: out of memory");
+		return NULL;
+	}
 	alloc_setup_special(p);
 	p->id = alloc_get_id(alloc);
 	return p;