Wildlife of Chad

However, a large area of desert dunes lie between Lake Chad and the Ouaddai massif, where fringes of xerophytic scrubland is noted.

The Sudan Savanna zone mostly consists of Sudanian woodland with intermittent vegetation of edaphic grassland and Acacia.

[3] Vegetation found in the area includes acacias, baobab, desert date, palms, African myrrh, and Indian jujube.

[7] Other species reported are; red-fronted gazelle, dorcas gazelle (Gazella rufifrons, Gazella dama, Gazella dorcas), patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas), striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), Sudan cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii), caracal (Felis caracal), and Chadian wild dog (Lycaon pictus sharicus), African elephant (Loxodonta africana), otter (Lutra maculicollis), Aonyx capensis, sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekei) and kob (Kobus kob).

Some of the species reported are catfish (Clarias gariepensis), tilapia, cichlids, characin (Alestes baremoze) and Nile perch (Lates niloticus).

The violet turaco (Musophaga violacea) is a species of least concern, which is found in large numbers in a range of less than 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi) covering many African countries including Chad.

[11][12][13] In addition to parks and reserves, eight Important Bird Areas (IBAs) have been identified and supported by BirdLife International.

These cover 11.2 percent of the country, an area of 146,500 square kilometres (56,600 sq mi), some overlapping with parks and reserves.

[1] Efforts have been made by the Food and Agriculture Organization to improve relations between farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralists in the Zakouma National Park (ZNP), Siniaka-Minia, and Aouk reserve in southeastern Chad to promote sustainable development.

Poaching is a serious problem in the country, particularly of elephants for the profitable ivory industry and a threat to lives of rangers even in the national parks such as Zakouma.