WADI EL-GEMAL NATIONAL park in southeastern Egypt is one of the most recent additions to the nation’s network of protectorates and potentially one of the most important. Declared in January 2003, it covers some 6,200 square kilometers encompassing a variety of habitats, from high mountains dissected by labyrinthine wadis, mangrove stands and groves of dom palms, to a series of offshore islands.

Ornithologists Tom Coles and Nick Williams, the world’s leading expert on sooty falcons, were recently commissioned by USAID to write a survey that they submitted to the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA). Coles and Williams come up with some remarkable records, not least that these islands, and especially Wadi El-Gemal Island, support a breeding population of sooty falcons that “represents the most important single colony of this species ever documented.”

Sooty falcons are uniform slate-gray falcons relieved by bright yellow legs, eye rings and cere (the fleshy base to the bill). They are slim-line raptors some 32-37 centimeters long and, as is common in birds of prey, the female is consistently rather larger than the male. The possible function of this phenomenon, known as sexual dimorphism, is that the two sexes can exploit different prey, the female being able to tackle larger items than the male.

Their primary prey is birds, and sooty falcons delay their breeding until autumn, when they can take advantage of the vast numbers of migrants heading south through Egypt towards their African wintering grounds. Coles and Williams estimate that Wadi El-Gemal Island supports a breeding population of between 150 and 170 pairs, a significant proportion of the optimistic global estimate of 5,000 pairs they cite in their report.

As they write, “The sheer size and density of the sooty falcon population on Wadi El-Gemal Island is unique.” But they go on to caution that “the exposed and easily accessible nest sites chosen by the falcons means that they are extremely vulnerable to disturbance or interference by humans.”

The report recommends that the islands of Wadi El-Gemal and Showarit be closed to “any and all human access during the falcon-breeding season, namely 1 June 30 November” (emphasis in original). If this isn’t feasible, then access should be strictly controlled and regulated during the falcon’s breeding season with visitors allowed in only if accompanied by a trained Red Sea Ranger.

It is to be hoped the EEAA take note.

I visited Wadi El-Gemal Island in April 2000, the timing of my visit coinciding with the arrival of the sooties (as birdwatchers affectionately call them), many probably having come from Madagascar, where the bulk of the population appears to winter. The island is a tear-drop shaped patch of rock tapering to a long sand spit to the south, surrounded by healthy coral reefs, with cliffs at the broad northern end. With the exception of a mangrove stand, it is largely unvegetated. Even as early as April, sooties were everywhere. I estimated 100 individuals, and to put this into perspective, the largest number I had previously seen in one place was five in Wadi Rishrash, a pair with three well-grown young.

But there was more. The island also supports a healthy population of ospreys. I counted 11 nests of which two were active. There was also a small colony of Caspian terns, at least five pairs, two of which had chicks. All these birds are ground nesters and hence vulnerable to human disturbance and, as the report points out, also to the potential introduction of feral predators such as cats and rats. Oh, and let’s be fair to the reptiles. It was on the island that I met up with my first red-spotted lizard.

Inland, in the mountain vastnesses of this part of the Eastern Desert, Coles and Williams come up with some interesting records, not least of them sightings of two of Egypt’s largest, and rarest, birds of prey. The first is the Lammergeier or bearded vulture, a huge raptor some 120 centimeters long with a wingspan approaching three meters. If your image of a vulture is of an ugly carrion-eater plunging its bloodied head into some rather unpleasant carcass, think again.

The Lammergeier is a bone marrow specialist, but lacks the heavy bill you would expect from a bird that has to crack bones for a living. Instead, the Lammergeier takes a bone from the carcass, flies up and drops it from high over an area of rock. After performing this repeatedly the bone cracks open and the bird gets its rewards. It has even been recorded using this technique with tortoises. Although widespread over much of Asia, southern Europe and Africa, the Lammergeier is rare everywhere, and in Egypt especially so. It may still be found in the mountains of South Sinai but its stronghold, if that is the right word with so few left, is the southern Eastern Desert.

The other sighting was that of a golden eagle reported being mobbed by a lone, and either brave or foolhardy, sooty falcon. The sighting may represent a lone migrant or may also provide a glimmer of hope that the National Park supports a hitherto unknown breeding population.

My sightings from 2000 included Hume’s tawny owl in nearby Wadi Raaba, the first time I had seen this extremely elusive desert owl outside Sinai. I heard the owl in Wadi El-Gemal itself. There were also pink-headed doves around the camps of the local Ababda tribesmen. This dove is very similar to the familiar collared dove but is smaller, paler and with a whiter belly. Also known as the African collared dove, it seems to be expanding its range northwards. There were also good numbers of Lichtenstein’s sandgrouse coming down to the wells to drink at dusk.

But my best memory of the area around Wadi El-Gemal was not of feather but of fur but back in 2000 prior to its designation as a National Park it would have been irresponsible to have written about it. Now I feel I can. The area still supports a seemingly healthy population of dorcas gazelles.

I had seen gazelles in the desert before but I had also seen the campsites and in one particularly gruesome discovery the unwanted body parts of a gazelle, left by illegal hunters. For me it was a revelation to drive along the wadi floor and find good numbers of these most beautiful of mammals either singly or in small herds. If the National Park performs its function properly, it should be possible to visit the wadis and experience dorcas gazelles in the wild for decades to come, even as tourist development creeps, or rather gallops, inexorably south. Hopefully their future is now secure in the region.

And what of the future? One mammal that I predict will be found in these remote wadis (you read it here first!) is an exquisite little canine called Blanford’s fox. Also known as the royal fox owing to its deep, rich fur and long, positively luxuriant and black-tipped tail, Blanford’s fox was first recorded in the Middle East as recently as 1981 when a small population was discovered in the Negev Desert. A specimen taken from South Sinai in 1977 and at first assumed to be the widespread Ruppell’s Sand fox was subsequently re-identified as Blanford’s fox on the basis of the black tip to the tail and the naked sole pads. Camera traps in the St. Katherine’s Protectorate have now reportedly photographed the fox there. Blanford’s fox is a fox of desert mountains and rocky slopes.

The habitat of the Wadi El-Gemal National Park mirrors that of South Sinai and is ideal. A number of mammal and bird species are found in both areas not least the Nubian ibex, striped hyena, hyrax, the aforementioned dorcas gazelle, Lammergeier and Lichtenstein’s sandgrouse and, perhaps most importantly, the golden spiny mouse, a probable prey species for this enigmatic little fox. It would be a fine addition to what is already a spectacularly beautiful and important corner of Egypt. et