Wildlife in Egypt: What You Can Actually See, and Where to Find It

What wildlife can you see in Egypt?

Expect small, shy desert animals, a spectacular bird migration and world-class marine life rather than big herds. The lions, elephants, giraffes and hippos painted in early tombs and carved on predynastic palettes disappeared from Egypt long ago as the climate dried and the Nile Valley filled with people; the last hippos in the Delta were reported in the early 19th century. What survives is adapted to one of the driest countries on earth, where well over 90% of the land is desert and most mammals are pale, small and active only in the cool hours.

Egypt has around 30 declared protected areas, from Ras Mohammed at the tip of Sinai, the first in 1983, to Wadi el-Gemal south of Marsa Alam. They take in reef, mangrove, mountain, dune and wetland, and they are where sightings are most reliable. For Australians used to kangaroos at the roadside and whales off the coast, the adjustment is that most Egyptian land mammals are glimpsed rather than watched. The reefs and the birds are where the numbers are.

Where to see Egypt's animals at a glance

Match the animal to the region: foxes in the Western Desert, ibex and hyrax in Sinai, gazelles in the far south-east, crocodiles on Lake Nasser and turtles at Marsa Alam. The table gives realistic chances for a traveller on a well-planned private trip.

Desert mammals: foxes, gazelles, ibex and the golden wolf

The wild mammal most visitors actually meet is a fox: tiny, big-eared fennec foxes and the slightly larger Rüppell's fox regularly trot into Western Desert camps after dark. Around Bahariya and in the White Desert they have learned that camps mean scraps. Watch from your rug with a head torch, ideally on a red setting, and resist feeding them; habituated foxes lose their fear of vehicles and people. In the morning ask your driver to read the tracks around camp, which often show jerboas, beetles, larks and the fox's evening rounds.

The Dorcas gazelle, the small, pale gazelle of ancient tomb scenes, survives in the wadis of the Eastern Desert, around Wadi el-Gemal and in parts of the Western Desert, though hunting has made it wary; you are most likely to see a few at a distance from a 4WD at dawn. The Nubian ibex, whose males carry long, ridged horns curving back over the shoulders, lives on the cliffs of the Sinai high mountains and the Red Sea Hills. Hikers walking with Jebeliya guides around St Catherine see them most often. In the same wadis, rabbit-sized rock hyraxes sun themselves on boulders; their nearest living relatives are, improbably, elephants and dugongs.

At night on the desert edge you may hear the animal behind the god Anubis. Long called the golden jackal, Egypt's wild canid was reclassified as the African golden wolf after genetic studies in the 2010s. Striped hyenas, sand cats and wildcats also live in Egypt but are very rarely seen by travellers.

The Nile and Lake Nasser: crocodiles and river life

Nile crocodiles now live in Egypt only on Lake Nasser, above the Aswan High Dam, so you will not see one on a standard Luxor to Aswan cruise. Crocodiles had largely vanished from the Egyptian Nile below Aswan long before the dam was finished in 1970, but the lake's long, empty shoreline suits them, and passengers on a Lake Nasser cruise sometimes spot them basking on sandbanks on sunny winter mornings. Nile monitor lizards, which can exceed a metre and a half, share the same shores.

Below the dam the river is a farmed, busy corridor, but it is still alive. Egyptian mongooses hunt along canal banks and sugar-cane fields, Egyptian fruit bats and smaller insect-eating bats stream out of tombs and temple crevices at dusk, and the reeds and islands are full of herons, kingfishers and bee-eaters. Birds are the Nile's real wildlife spectacle, from the islands of Aswan to the winter lakes of Fayoum, and our birdwatching in Egypt guide covers sites and seasons in detail.

One thing to know in Aswan: some Nubian village houses keep young crocodiles in tanks as a visitor attraction. Look if you are curious, but don't pay to hold or photograph one.

Reptiles, scorpions and the small creatures

Snakes and scorpions live in Egypt's deserts, but travellers on organised trips rarely see either, and bites and stings are uncommon. The species you might hear about have deep roots in Egyptian culture. The horned viper, a sand-coloured snake with small horns above the eyes, is the hieroglyph for the sound "f", and the Egyptian cobra is the rearing uraeus on the front of royal crowns. Both are dangerous and both avoid people.

Far more often you will see lizards: spiny-tailed lizards basking beside their burrows on gravel plains, fringe-toed lizards sprinting across dunes and geckos hunting moths on hotel walls. The Egyptian tortoise, one of the world's smallest, is critically endangered and almost never seen in the wild. At dawn in the Western Desert look for scarab beetles rolling dung balls across the sand, the behaviour that inspired the sun god Khepri pushing the sun across the sky.

• Shake out shoes and clothes left outside overnight at desert camps.
• Don't turn over rocks or put your hands into crevices.
• Wear closed shoes and use a torch when walking around camp after dark.

Under the Red Sea

Egypt's richest wildlife is underwater: the Red Sea's fringing reefs hold hundreds of coral species, more than a thousand kinds of fish, turtles, dolphins and sharks, often a short swim from the beach. Green turtles graze the seagrass of Abu Dabbab near Marsa Alam, spinner dolphins rest in the lagoon at Samadai, oceanic whitetip sharks patrol the offshore reefs in autumn and the shy dugong still feeds, rarely seen, in a few southern bays. Our Red Sea marine life guide explains what lives where and when, and our guide to swimming with dolphins in Egypt sets out the rules that protect the resting pods.

How to watch wildlife responsibly in Egypt

Choose wild encounters over captive ones, keep your distance and never pay for a photo with a wild animal. Egypt's animal-welfare problems are concentrated where tourists gather, so your choices make a real difference.

• Skip dolphinariums and captive swim programmes in resort towns. Wild dolphins at Samadai and Sataya are a far better experience.
• Refuse photo props: falcons on a gloved fist, baby crocodiles and other animals offered for a quick photo at monuments or on beaches are usually kept in poor conditions.
• Check working animals before you ride. At Giza and in Luxor, look for camels and horses with clear eyes, good body condition, no harness sores and shade and water nearby, and walk away if you see a whip used hard. The British charity Brooke has run working-animal clinics in Egypt since the 1930s, and our camel riding guide explains how to pick a good operator.
• Don't buy wildlife products: stuffed animals, turtle shell, coral, shells and dried pufferfish are still sold in some resort shops, are illegal to export and will be seized by Australian and New Zealand biosecurity.
• Don't feed wild animals, from desert foxes to reef fish, and stay on vehicle tracks in protected areas.

When and how to plan a wildlife-focused trip

Go between October and April for the deserts and Sinai, in March–April or September–October for migrating birds, and between April and November for the warmest reef water. Late October, November, March and April overlap all three, which makes them the best months for a trip that mixes temples, desert and sea.

A rewarding two-week combination might run like this: a day in Fayoum for winter waterbirds on Lake Qarun and the whale fossils of Wadi el-Hitan; a night in the White Desert with the foxes and the stars; a Nile cruise or dahabiya, birding from the deck; a dawn felucca around Aswan's islands; then four or five nights in Marsa Alam for turtles, dolphins and a guided day in Wadi el-Gemal with Ababda guides who know where the gazelles feed. Sinai's mountains suit walkers who want ibex and hyrax; check current travel advice for the area first.

Bring binoculars, a red-light head torch and a zoom lens of at least 300 mm if you photograph animals. On a private itinerary we can add specialist birding or naturalist guides and time each stop for the first and last light, when Egyptian wildlife is most active. For the landscapes themselves, read our guide to the deserts of Egypt.