Wildlife in northern Darfur, Sudan: A review of its distribution and status in the recent past and at present

Abstract

The literature in both published and unpublished government sources on wildlife in Northern Darfur is reviewed mainly relating to the first half of the 20th century. The area concerned covers some 250,000 km 2 ranging in habitat type from desert to broadleaved deciduous woodland and there are records relating to at least 31 different species of larger mammals. Of these only six were seen in aerial surveys carried out in late 1976 although a small number of others still survive. Four species of principal international concern are the scimitar-horned oryx, the addax, the barbary sheep and the addra or dama gazelle: of these only very small numbers of addax and dama gazelle certainly still occur. A table provides information on the oryx and addax from primary sources, both published and unpublished. The reduction in the number of species, the presumed reduction in total numbers of animals and restrictions in range are attributed as much to the indirect effects of increasing human and domestic livestock populations as to hunting pressure, except in the case of carnivores which were systematically exterminated in the 1940s and early 1950s.