Mauritania

Mauritania is a country on the Atlantic coast of Africa, forming a geographical and cultural bridge between the Maghrib in North Africa and the westernmost part of sub-Saharan Africa. Large parts of Mauritania cover part of the Sahara Desert, and until the drought that hit much of this part of Africa in the 1970s, most of the population was nomadic. The country's mineral wealth includes large deposits of iron ore, copper and gypsum. Mauritania's wildlife is affected by two main impacts, as the country is located in two biogeographical regions. The northern one is located in the Palearctic area, which extends south of the Sahara, and the southern one in the Afrotropical area. Mauritania is also an important wintering area for many birds migrating from the Palearctic. The majority of the larger mammal species are now extinct in Mauritania.  The mammals that are still alive include the Fennec Fox, the African Golden Wolf, the Warthog, the African Wild Cat, the Cape Hare and the Patas Monkey. The abundant offshore waters of Mauritania support a diverse fauna of cetaceans. Upwelling provides rich feeding grounds for whales, including Blue Whales, Sei Whales and Bryde's Whales. Among the other cetaceans along the Mauritanian coast are the Harbor Porpoise, Atlantic Spotted Dolphin, Bottlenose Dolphin, Sperm Whale, Short-Finned Pilot Whale and Orca. More than 500 species of birds have been recorded in Mauritania. Coastal wetlands are of huge importance for the more than two million wintering Western Palearctic waders, which belong to fifteen different species.