There is a chance that I may be passing through Egypt in the next few months. What are the chances of two or three days hunting something/somewhere in the area?

Angelo Dacey ran hunts for ibex and desert gazelles in the Red Sea hills, but I do not know if he is still active there. There is also some waterfowl hunting, as I understand it.

George

Afraid that those Red Sea Hills are in Sudan.

I've hunted dorcas gazelle in the desert WNW of Omdurman (one of Khartoum's tri-cities) and duck, geese, sand grouse and korry bustard along the White Nile south of Khartoum, but have yet to hunt Nubian Ibex in the Red Sea Hills.

The Khartoum authorities and southern rebels have settled the outstanding issues and are, as we write, working out the text of a peace agreement that will eventually reopen the south of Sudan for hunting (elephant, bongo, Lord Derby eland, white-eared kob etc. Did see some of the kob three months ago when in the Boma plateau area as part of a book project...

Can't help on Egypt for hunting.
Regards, Tim Carney

Tim,
You are right, of course. Angelo did offer hunts in Egypt some years ago, but most of his hunting is in Sudan (and now Tanzania w/TGTS).

George

Thu 15 Jul 2004

3:44am (UK)
Concern Grows For Wildlife in Egypt


Thirty years ago, people driving across the sands of Egypt�s Western Desert could see herds of gazelle so vast that when a turn of the ignition key startled them, the antelope would run off in a column almost as long as the horizon, recalled environmental consultant Mustafa Saleh.

Now gazelles are an endangered species in Egypt. And Saleh blames hunters from the wealthy Gulf countries and the Egyptian civil servants who give them permits for what are called �desert safaris� � the viewing of wild animals.

�Whoever issued the permits doesn�t think very highly of our natural heritage,� Saleh said in an interview.

Egypt has 24 Protected Areas, or reserves, covering 10% of its territory. They are run by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency. Permits tend to be issued by military intelligence, but they have to be endorsed by the EEAA.

Conservationists say EEAA employees are well-meaning, but that higher political interests can push them into countersigning questionable permits.

The permit-buyers who are most feared are the rich �Gulfies� who go into the desert in convoys of four-wheel drive vehicles and stay for three or four weeks of hunting.

�The reason they have to come to Egypt is because they�ve annihilated the gazelle, oryx and houbara populations in their own countries,� naturalist Richard Hoath said. The houbara is a long-legged bird as big as a large chicken whose meat is believed to be an aphrodisiac in the Gulf.

Hoath recently published A Field Guide to the Mammals of Egypt, which covers everything from bats to leopards. He was deliberately vague about the location of certain species for fear that poachers would use the book.

A scientific adviser in the EEAA, Sherif Baha el Din, acknowledged that permits were getting into the wrong hands.

�The people who give them (permits), probably they are aware that they are abused,� el Din said.

Earlier this year, the English-language magazine Egypt Today reported that a hunting party led by an unnamed Gulf cabinet minister had roamed the Western Desert for three weeks, entering the Siwa reserve and killing 42 antelope, including �what may have been the last slender-horned gazelle in the world.�

The slender-horned gazelle is found only in Egypt and Libya. Experts say nobody knows how many survive but the subspecies is on the border of extinction.

The head of the nature conservation sector of EEAA, Moustafa Fouda, said that rangers in Siwa had spotted slender-horned gazelle a month after the report. He also dismissed the Egypt Today toll as �exaggerated,� saying he had received the remains of only one gazelle from the February hunt, despite repeated requests to people in the area for evidence.

Whatever the toll, conservationists such as Saleh and Hoath say that wealthy, influential visitors are getting away with hunting endangered species in Egypt.

Hoath said the EEAA �simply doesn�t have enough clout� against other ministries, such as Interior and Foreign Affairs, that might ask for permits for Gulf VIPs.

Conservation director Fouda denies this. �I am a very, very powerful person,� he said. �I implement the law by all means and I don�t care about anybody whoever, even if they are a prince.�

But el Din admits the EEAA does lack power within the government. �It�s a political reality,� he said.

El Din said the Siwa hunting party had no permits at all ��which is positive in a way because sometimes the problem that depresses a lot of us is that the poachers have some sort of permit.�

Mahmoud el-Kassoumi of the Federation of Tourist Chambers said he had complained to the government last year about its granting permits to wealthy Gulf Arabs. He wrote that permit buyers believe �they can go into the desert and do whatever they want.�

El-Kassoumi said that Fouda, the EEAA conservation chief, is dedicated, but �he needs the support of the higher levels, and I don�t think he has that.�

Egypt�s record in protecting its fauna is not good. Hippopotamuses have long disappeared from its part of the Nile. Hunters have also wiped out Egypt�s addax antelope and scimitar-horned oryxes.

The problem seems to boil down to three factors.

First, a lack of resources. Fouda said the hunters often have four-wheel drive vehicles more powerful than the rangers� trucks. At least twice in Siwa, suspected poachers �ran away very, very fast� when approached by rangers.

Second, a failure to enforce the law. El Din said calls for tougher legislation miss the point, adding that �the issue is implementation� � a problem that is widespread in Egypt.

Third, a lack of awareness of the value of wildlife. Saleh, the environment consultant, said some civil servants who issue permits to suspected poachers think wildlife is �something that they can give away.�

Mike,

I am moving to Cairo a month from now and the first thing I am going to do is check out the hunting possibilities. Angelo Dacey is strictly hunting in Sudan and one is looking at around $12,500 for a Nubian Ibex/Gazelle combination hunt or about the same for a Barbary sheep hunt. The waterfowling, however, promises to be fantastic and much more reasonable in terms of cost. Keep in contact with me via PM messages here on AR and perhaps we can schedule something while you are in the area.

Best,

JohnTheGreek

John

Good luck and have fun. Remember to drop in here and tell us about it.

I have heard sooo many complaints in different countries about wealthy Arab 'oil-millionaires' that love hunting poor creatures. Too bad this group cannot unite with other hunters to promote hunting/conservation in the middle east.

John The Greek-What are the gun laws like in Egypt? Given their battles with Islamic Fundamentalists I might imagine a rather reticent approach to foreigners bringing guns into the country. Friends of mine who have visited Egypt have positively gushed about the country. Good luck and please keep us informed. Thanks Cig 2

Erik,



I'd have to guess, but we were at least 100 km WNW of Omdurman, near what was called the old Chevron road, used when Chevron was prospecting for oil in the north, having found the fields in the south currently being exploited. It's a considerable way from that road that cuts north from Omdurman to the road junction just downstream from the Fourth Cataract (turn right for new Dongola, go left to cross the Nile by ferry at Kerima and Jebel Barkal). The area is sand, wadis and ironstone, with cold wind from the north during the hunting season.



Kathi is right about the Gulfies. Lots of stories in Sudan about "hunters" coming in with refrigerator/freezer equipped C-130s to blast herds of dorcas even out there.



Thanks for the pix. Strong reminders of our January this year drive from Omdurman north on the new shortcut, then off it on the desert to the Kerima ferry point to stay overnight at the Italian hotel at the foot of Jebel Barkal, and then up the east bank of the Nile on a mix of desert and truly atrocious dirt roads through Kuru to Kerma (site of the first large black African kingdom ca. 2,500 BC) and to Sai island then to the west bank and up to the Dal Cataract and back to Khartoum on the west bank of the Nile through New Dongoloa and the tarred road south to Omdurman. Really got stuck once, needing help from a pick up that had two lengths of pierced steel plank to help us back out to firm sand!



Regards, Tim

Cig,

I actually just got an email from the customs officer in Cairo and the process for importation (since I will be there for a while) is rather lengthy but not impossible. The process may very well be different for visiting hunters, however. I believe Johan (who posts here) has some friends who have hunted waterfowl in Egypt and he would know better than I about Egypt's temporary import policies. I will post new information when it becomes available to me.

Best,

JohnTheGreek