Catastrophic Decline in Sahara’s Wildlife Population, Study Cautions

Sahara, world's largest hot desert that was once rich in animal and plant diversity, is seeing a catastrophic collapse of its wildlife population, claims a new finding.

Spread across 3.5 million square miles across North Africa, the treacherous environment of the Sahara desert requires the wildlife to adapt to the intense heat and alteration in temperatures. However, over recent years the desert wildlife has been in peril. A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Zoological Society says that the tropical desert is witnessing a catastrophic decline in its wildlife population.

Forty authors representing 28 scientific organizations contributed to the study. The team of researchers analyzed 14 different desert species and discovered that a half of these were either wiped out regionally or were confined to just a percent or less than a percent of their historical range.

Lack of information and recorded data makes it difficult for the researchers to determine the cause of the drastic decline in the wildlife population; they, however, assume hunting to be the prime cause for the disappearance of the animal species.

They discovered that Bubal Hartebeest (Bubal Antelop) that was formerly found in north Sahara Desert, has gone extinct. Also on the list is the large antelope species 'Oryx' that has gone extinct in the wild and the African wild dog and African lion too have vanished from the Sahara.

They were stunned to discover that dama gazelle and addax disappeared from 99 percent of their range, similarly the leopard was wiped out from 97 percent of its range and the Saharan cheetah lost 90 percent of its territory.

The only species to beat all odds and breed successfully was the Nubian ibex that continues to inhabit most of its historical range. Despite this, the species has been listed as 'vulnerable' by the IUCN as the population faces several threats , hunting being a major one.

As 2014 is halfway point in the United Nations Decade for Deserts and Fight against Desertification, and the fourth year of the United Nations Decade for Biodiversity, the researchers emphasize on the need for more scientific attention as well as conservative support.

"The Sahara serves as an example of a wider historical neglect of deserts and the human communities who depend on them," lead author Sarah Durant of WCS and ZSL, said in a statement. "The scientific community can make an important contribution to conservation in deserts by establishing baseline information on biodiversity and developing new approaches to sustainable management of desert species and ecosystems."

The government has established the Termit and Tin Toumma National Reserve that is spread across 97,000 square kilometers, which harbors most of the world's 200 and more remaining wild addax and the few surviving population of dama gazelle and Saharan cheetah.

Plans are afoot to introduce the oryx  in the wild u Ouadi Rime-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve.

The researchers document their finding in the journal Diversity and Distribution.