Wildlife of Kuwait

The summer is hot and dry and the precipitation, which averages less than 8 cm (3.1 in) falls mainly in the winter in the form of unpredictable showers and as thunderstorms in spring.

[5] Date palms have been planted at oases and near the coast and mangroves and sea grasses grow on the mudflats near Kuwait Bay, their roots helping to stabilise the coastline.

[7] The Mubarak Al-Kabeer Reserve Ramsar Site on Boubyan Island consists of lagoons and saltmarshes and is visited annually by wetland birds migrating from Eurasia to Africa, and others travelling from Turkey to India.

[9] Away from the coast the searing heat and absence of surface water means that animals need to have special adaptations and behaviours to survive.

The frog-eyed gecko (Teratoscincus scincus) does this, burrowing as deep as 1.2 m (4 ft) below the surface among the dunes of the coastal plains, where it remains cool and humid.

[5] Terrestrial mammals include several small desert rodents, the desert hedgehog, the African wildcat, the sand cat, the caracal, the Indian grey mongoose, the striped hyena, the golden jackal, the fennec fox, the honey badger, the Saudi gazelle, the goitered gazelle, the Arabian oryx, the dromedary and two species of bat.

[11] Scorpions and dung beetles abound, and in the wetlands and mudflats around Kuwait Bay and the islands there are crabs and mudskippers, numerous species of fish, waterfowl, gulls, flamingoes and dugongs.