Sunday 27 May 2012

Aylal's update

Since mid April, Aylal stayed in an area in the north of the park and unprotected area beside it. It didn't make big movements. Bassically, it's spent all the night by the same roost on the coast and move by the coast and inland during the day.
Scimitar-horned oryx at Arrouais reserve
(photo Imad Cherkaoui)
Some of those records are on the Arrouais reserve, not far from Tifnit, which is a protected area where gazelles and scimitar-horned oryx are in acclimatation for their further reintroduction in nature. For instance, one reintroduction took place in 2008 in the Mssissi reserve, in Errachidia region.
Vegetation there is formed by Ononis natrix, Retama monosperma, Echinops spinosus, Lycium intricatum, Launaea arborescens, Centaurea sp. and Limonium mucronatum, in addition to some exotic Eucalyptus and Acacia trees that where planted decades ago to avoid wind erosion.
NBI usually don't come into this reserve, maybe because vegetation is too dense, but it seems to be an adequate habitat for feeding in some seasons. In fact, the prefered feeding area is the coastal strip west to the reserve, where the Tiznit village is and where the steppe is well developed among the fixed dunes.

The GPS records show us some other preferred sites outside the National Park. It’s well known that NBI use to feed sometimes outside the limits of the protected area, usually on fallows.

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