Biogeography and Ecology of North African Birds and Mammals

Abstract

THE animal population of the northern parts of the African continent is of exceptional interest to a biologist, both by reason of the great similarity of the conditions in coastal areas to those of southern Europe, and by the striking contrast provided by the Sahara, with its extreme desert regime and highly peculiar fauna. While the fauna of North Africa in its entirety remains still very inadequately explored, our knowledge of at least two groups, birds and mammals, is sufficiently advanced for a comprehensive survey of the fauna. Such a survey is provided in a recent memoir by M. Henri Heim de Balsac, who has based it not only on all the available literature, but also on personal explorations carried out over many years.