First Record of Crab Plover (Dromas ardeola) Nesting in Egypt

Abdelhafez, Mahmoud S.; Abd El-Wakeil, Khaleid F.; Saber, Samy A.

doi:10.21608/eajbsz.2020.125274

First Record of Crab Plover (Dromas ardeola) Nesting in Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Wadi El Gemal National park, Natural Conservation Sector, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Egypt- Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, 11884, Egypt

² Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

³ Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, 11884, Egypt

10.21608/eajbsz.2020.125274

Abstract

The present work aimed to investigate the status of Crab Plover (Dromas ardeola) population in Egypt, especially the nesting area. During the period from 2011 to 2019, several trips over the Egyptian Red Sea coast and islands for recording the crab plover population and searching for their nests were performed. The results showed that the estimated numbers of D. ardeola population in Egypt fluctuated from 130 individuals in 2019 to 1200 individuals in 2018. Fifty nests were observed for the first time in Elba National Park in June 2016. The numbers of nests increased in the next two years then declined to 50 nests in 2019

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