Rare white Dorcas gazelle and unusual birdlife spotted in Sahara

09/02/2012 13:15:57 By John Newby of the  Sahara Conservation Fund  (SCF)

"In almost 40 years of travel throughout the Sahara and Sahel I have never seen a white dorcas gazelle before" summed up SCF's Director, John Newby, when presenting his team's findings on a recent survey of Chad's Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve to ministry officials in Chad's capital city N'Djaména.

John and team-mates, Tim Wacher and Renata Molca-nova, were there as part of SCF's ground breaking Pan Sahara Wildlife Survey (PSWS); an outstanding initiative that continues to turn up new extremely valuable information on the fauna and flora of some of Africa's least studied countries.

The project, funded most generously by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, through the Emirates Center for Wild-life Propagation, is nearing the end of a 2-year pilot phase in which it has to date surveyed 6 sites in Niger and Chad.

Chad survey
During the recent survey carried out in Chad in September, further sightings of the critically endangered Dama gazelle were made. Also present were many Dorcas gazelles, including the pale animal shown above.

Migrant birds
It is at this time of the year the reserve is also home to a large number of migrant birds, mostly from Europe but also inter-tropical mi-grants from within Africa. One very striking example is the magnificent Denham's bustard, one of the largest and most graceful of the entire group. The birds seem to arrive in pairs and only spend 2-3 months in the region before flying back to countries like the Central African Republic, Uganda and beyond. During their stay, the bustards inhabit areas of dense, seasonal grassland, gorging themselves on the abundant grasshoppers and locusts present.

Migrating wader hotspot!
Unlikely as it seems, the desert is also a hotspot for migrating waders and other waterbirds, that enjoy the abundant pondlife of the temporary pools and wetlands. These ephemeral waterholes also provide much-needed stopover and resting points to long-distance migrants, some of which, like the many thousands of swallows, swifts and martins, eventually head on to Southern Africa.

Demoiselle cranes
Whereas white storks are fairly often seen on migration, the sleek, grey Demoiselle crane (right) is a far less often observed bird. This year we were lucky and spotted several large groups of this flighty and increasingly rare species.

More articles about the work of the Sahara Conservation Fund 

Reports on PSWS surveys can be found in the Re-sources section of the SCF website.