Carnivores

With its abundance of gerbils, jerboas and spiny mice, insects, scorpions and lizards, the Sahara is blessed with an unexpected variety of carnivores. Whilst the cheetah and striped hyena are both large diurnal animals, many of the other predators are smaller and find respite from the intense heat by burrowing and living a largely nocturnal existence. These include a suite of small foxes - fennec, Rüppell's and pale - that coexist in ways that are still poorly understood.

As elsewhere in the world, the large carnivores of the Sahara and Sahel have suffered enormous prejudice and persecution. The desert race of the cheetah is now extremely rare, something compounded by its natural scarcity in relation to its very variable food supply. Through its projects in Algeria and Niger, SCF is working to conserve the remaining viable populations.

Also highly threatened is the striped hyena. In a part of the world in which herding is so important
to the local economy and the keeping of livestock so intrinsic to the welfare of the people, the issue of predation must be taken seriously and in a balanced manner. Jackals are specially vulnerable given their relative abundance and penchant for taking small stock. To avoid the all-too-frequent and largely illegal use of poisons such as strychnine, methods need to be found to protect livestock without destroying nature.

To find out more about the Sahara's carnivores, click on the images below.