Wildlife of Egypt

The wildlife of Egypt is composed of the flora and fauna of this country in northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia, and is substantial and varied.

Apart from the fertile Nile Valley, which bisects the country from south to north, the majority of Egypt's landscape is desert, with a few scattered oases.

To the east lies the Red Sea, and the Sinai Peninsula, the Asian part of the country, which is bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel.

In the extreme southwest of the country on the border with Libya and Sudan, is Jebel Uweinat, a mountainous region and in the northwest lies the Qattara Depression, a large area of land some 133 m (436 ft) below sea level.

To the east of the Nile lies the much smaller Eastern Desert, a high mountain ridge running parallel with the Red Sea, seamed with wadis on either flank.

The Eastern Desert receives some precipitation in the south in the form of orographic rainfall from winds that have crossed the Red Sea; this may cause torrential flows in the wadis.

In the Siwa Oasis there are small lakes, reedbeds dominated by Phragmites australis and Typha domingensis, and saltmarshes with Arthrocnemum macrostachyum, Juncus rigidus, Alhagi maurorum, Cladium mariscus and Cressa cretica.

[6] In the mountains of the Eastern Desert grows the tree Balanites aegyptiaca, the open patchy woodland being remnants of forests that used to cover this region.

[8] At one time Egypt had a cooler, wetter climate than it has today; ancient tomb paintings show giraffes, hippopotamuses, crocodiles and ostriches,[9] and the petroglyphs at Silwa Bahari on the upper Nile, between Luxor and Aswan, show African bush elephants, white rhinoceroses, gerenuk and more ostriches, a fauna akin to that of present-day East Africa.

[10] Mammals of the Western Desert have been depleted over the years and the addax and scimitar oryx are no longer found there, and the Atlas lion has probably gone as well.

The high rocky mountains of Gebel Elba in the south have a distinctive range of animals including the aardwolf, striped polecat, and common genet, and there may still be African wild ass in this area.

Other large birds include storks, flamingoes, herons, egrets, pelicans, quail, sunbirds and golden orioles.

[11] Egypt is on a major bird migratory route between Eurasia and East Africa and around two hundred species of migrants pass through twice a year.