Egypt's deserts were home to jackals, hyenas, wolves, and feral dogs until fairly recently. Now, there are only a very few Egyptian wolves...a couple of my riding friends have seen one or two in the desert...and the feral dogs. The dogs don't bother anyone and once in a while kids will kidnap some pups and bring them home. I have one right now. She's smart, tough, and slightly different from my other dogs in that she's much more vocal.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
A Desert Dog
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8 comments:
How fascinating and what a lovely photo. Do the dogs hang around and get fed by people, steal food - or do they find animals to kill. I wondered what animals they would kill in the desert.
There are quite a few rodents living in the desert..jerboa, for example..and in the farmland at the edge. They also scavenge quite a lot any dead farm animals, trash, and so on.
Looks so tame!
It is a lovely photo, and interesting to see the color of the dog blending with the landscape.
A nice looking dog. Seems content.
That's really interesting. Nice looking dog. But where did your jackals and hyenas go? Here in the wooded hills around my place there are a few hyenas and tons of very vocal jackals. Maybe they crossed the border? :)
Afraid not. There is virtually no understanding of nature and ecology here and no education regarding these things. I'm afraid that many of them were shot by bored soldiers stationed in the desert areas. Since a vast majority of Egyptians live in urban areas, they tend to be very fearful of animals and to have almost no experience with them.
That's sad. And as for the fear especially of hyenas--now I remember that when I used to hike with the Nature Protection Society and we'd camp out in the Judean Desert, around the campfire the guide would often tell Arab folk tales of the dreaded dabu.
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