Wildlife of Mauritania

Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in Northwest Africa. It is the 11th largest sovereign state in Africa bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to the north and northwest, Algeria to the northeast, Mali to the east and southeast, and Senegal to the southwest. Approximately 90% of Mauritania’s land is within the Sahara.

Mauritania’s tourism is yet to gain a foothold due to its negative stigma of being an unsafe destination. This is due to its past issues on killings and kidnappings from decades ago and the fact that most website embassies still advises travelers against travel to the country. Adventure tourists; however continue to visit this destination and witnessing its safety first hand, the world is slowly hearing about Mauritania as a safe and rising tourist gem.

Most of the larger mammal species have been extirpated from Mauritania and are extinct Among the antelopes the Scimitar-horned oryx, addax, korrigum, and dama gazelle are extinct, the bohor reedbuck, Buffon’s kob, Dorcas gazelle, and red-fronted gazelle are extinct and the bushbuck and slender-horned gazelle are of indeterminate status.

The rich offshore waters of Mauritania are home to a diverse fauna of cetaceans. Upwelling off the coats create rich feeding grounds for baleen whales

• Scimitar-horned oryx
• Addax
• Korrigum
• Bushbuck
• Mediterranean monk seal
• Fennec Fox
• Golden Jackals
• Warthog
• African wild cats
• Cape hares
• Patas monkeys
• Blue whale
• Sei whale
• Bryde’s whale
• North Atlantic right whale
• Harbour porpoise
• Atlantic spotted dolphin
• Bottlenose dolphin
• Sperm whale
• Short-finned pilot whale
• Orca

Best time to travel to Mauritania

If dry weather is what you’re after, the months with the lowest chance of significant precipitation in Mauritania are November, January, and then February. Note that we define “significant precipitation” as .1 inches or more in this section. The lowest chance of rain or snow occurs around early January. For example, on the week of January 1st, there are no days of precipitation on average.

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