Wildlife
Travelling through Algeria, you're bound to come across sheep, goats, horses, camels and donkeys. In the north, the countryside is haunted by foxes, wildcats, weasels, striped hyenas, hares and jackals, and, more dangerously, wild boar, which took advantage of the ban on hunting weapons in the 1990s to thrive, even approaching towns and endangering crops. In certain forested areas, we come across a typical North African monkey, the magot monkey. Moving southwards, we come across the gazelle, the cuffed mouflon, which has taken refuge in the steep heights, the sand cat, the gerbil, which only comes out at night and drinks little, the rock daman, a rodent native to Ethiopia, the sand rat, the fennec, the cheetah, the porcupine and the wild dog, which hasn't been seen since 1988. Crocodiles and ostriches were still reported in the early 20th century. The whiptail lizard is the only one that dares to go out in the sun, cooling itself by ventilation. The most famous bird is the moula-moula, a lucky white-headed traquet. Insects and arachnids, which are few and far between in the desert, are represented by flies, mosquitoes near stagnant water and beetles, one of which is nicknamed "4 x 4" because of the ease with which it crawls through the sand thanks to its high legs. There are few scorpions, which are said to come out between 7 and 8 pm.
The famous dromedary
Even if everyone calls it a "camel", the ruminant mammal found in southern Algeria is actually a dromedary, since the camel's territory is limited to Central Asia, and the dromedary's to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The introduction of this member of the camelid family to the Maghreb, around the 4th century, turned nomadic habits upside down. Accustomed to scorching heat and long camel treks, the camel replaced the horse and, thanks to its stamina, helped the local population to conquer and trade. Everything about a dromedary is the object of genuine respect that borders on worship: its hair, which is shed each year, provides the material for sturdy carpets and clothing; its meat, which is extremely tasty, and its milk, which is richer than that of cows and goats, are highly prized; its proverbial sobriety enables it to go up to four days without drinking (its hump is noticeably smaller); its endurance enables it to cover 150 km in a single day; its nostrils close when the wind picks up, ensuring that this "vessel of the desert" doesn't stop when the sirocco blows or providing an excellent bulwark against the elements; its long eyelashes protect its eyes; its feet, equipped with round pads, prevent it from getting silted up; its excrement itself proves salutary in the event of snakebite or sinusitis!
The flora
Algeria's vegetation, at least in the north, is essentially Mediterranean, subject to rainfall. The forests and scrubland of the northern slopes of the Tellian Atlas are made up of oaks, cork oaks, Zean oaks (an often hundred-year-old oak with a straight trunk that can reach 6 m in circumference), fragrant cedars, Aleppo pines, carob trees, lentisks, heathers and arbutus, which have suffered greatly from industrial, agricultural and strategic deforestation. Reforestation, which has begun on the bangs of some national parks, is proving difficult due to water shortages and soil erosion. On the slopes of the Tellian Atlas, juniper and steppe-like vegetation become increasingly rare as you climb. In the irrigated and protected plains, fruit trees bear fruit all year round: almond trees (early April), apricot trees (May), cherry trees (June), fig trees (June to August), vines (late July to September), pear, apple and peach trees (August), pomegranate trees (September) and orange trees (November), while lemon trees bear fruit all year round. Walnuts, chestnuts and olives are also harvested - the best being those from the Sig region in the Oranais. In Kabylia, olives are harvested for oil production. The high plateaus, where the climate and soil are not conducive to the development of vegetation, are home to esparto grass and other grasses. Also known as esparto grass, esparto is a graminaceous plant whose sprigs can reach 1 m in length.
In the Saharan Atlas, we find cypress, terebinth which can reach 20 m in height, chamaerops palm whose leaves are woven into basketry, arbutus, thorn sumac whose bark is used as a red dye, and so on. Oasis vegetation, protected from the wind by artificial barriers, walls or palm fences, and from the sun by the canopy of tall date palms, can be very rich and varied. Among the plantations irrigated by fragile seguias ("gullies"), as in the more advantaged gardens of the north, you'll find as many vegetables as fruit or more ornamental flowers and shrubs (jasmine, bougainvillea, lantana, honeysuckle, bignone, passionflower, rose, geranium, etc.) and aromatic plants (mint, basil, thyme, etc.).
Outside the oases, the Sahara is fairly poor in terms of vegetation, simply dotted with acacias whose leaves become thorns to limit water evaporation, sometimes with wild olive trees and meagre tufts of grass. But all it takes is one downpour, and the following days see the appearance of a large number of plants whose seeds, carried by the winds, were just waiting for this moisture to germinate. Green tufts of plants that had been growing up until then (mugwort, lavender, myrtle, jujube and coloquint in the wadis, purple dock in the mountains, etc.) also appear, and although they seem to differ little from one another, they require a good knowledge of the flora to distinguish their properties. Some of these plants are astonishing, such as the Rose of Jericho, which dries curled up around its seeds and unfurls as soon as water touches it. The Tuaregs are still familiar with these plants, which are often highly scented, and collect them to flavour their tea or prepare a decoction with beneficial properties (chir, takmezout...). Some wadis are known to be covered with oleanders, which are simply pretty because they are highly toxic.
The unavoidable date palms
The word "date" comes from the Latin dactylus, meaning "finger", and is found in deglet nour ("light finger"), a large, clear, unctuous date, largely reserved for export for its preserving qualities, and in deglet beïda ("white finger") or mech degla, smaller and drier, eaten locally: ghars, soft, syrupy, very sweet fruits that are preserved by compressing them, and were formerly known as "caravan bread" or deglet beïda. There are more than seventy varieties of date palm, and consequently of dates, which even differ in their pits.
This tree, cultivated in Mesopotamia in ancient times, was introduced to the Maghreb by the Berbers, who had the ingenious idea of planting them in the middle of the desert where there were springs. They had just invented the oasis. Cool under their foliage, they grow fruit and vegetables. The date palm is not overly demanding when it comes to the amount of water it needs, as its roots, which grow vertically from the trunk, can drink up to ten meters below the surface. However, if the groundwater table is too deep and drought recurs, man must intervene to provide the necessary water, using motor-driven pumps or swing wells.
In Algeria, there are some 7 million date palms producing over 100,000 tonnes of dates, of which 40% are deglet nour. To obtain a productive date palm, a sucker taken from a female tree is transplanted. A stone will only produce a sterile, degenerate tree. The shoot, planted in a hole one metre deep, is surrounded by dry palms to protect it from the wind and excessive heat. It then takes at least ten years of intensive care before the fruit is harvested. Every year, in early spring, the female plant must be artificially fertilized. Insemination is carried out by the khammes, who take the pollen from the few male plants and deposit it in the spathes (cone-shaped leaves) of the female tree. Harvesting begins at the end of August, and it's not until November that the deglet nour bunches are picked. Once the dates have been harvested, the lower collar of the palms is cut off: the scar left by this operation forms these sort of stepped scales whose number of circles indicates the age of the tree.
National parks
Algeria's landscapes and fauna are protected in eleven national parks, which are somewhat under-resourced.
Tlemcen National Park. This is one of Algeria's most recent national parks. It protects important archaeological remains and speleological sites.
Theniet el-Had National Park. 3,616 ha. On the southern edge of the great Ouarsenis massif and in the center of the Tellian Atlas, this park protects beautiful mountain cedar forests and a highly diverse fauna.
Chréa National Park. 26,000 ha. 50 km south of Algiers, in the heart of the Blida massif, this is a mountain park. Particularly worth a visit are the thousand-year-old cedar forests, which can be explored on short hikes.
Djurdjura National Park. 18,500 ha. A park of snow-capped peaks, winter rivers and silent forests, large gorges and chasms, valleys, a lake and high plateaus. Animal species: magot monkey (a rare species of macaque), booted eagle, wild boar, striped hyena, falcon, nightingale, grey heron, partridge and even wolf.
Gouraya National Park. 2,080 ha. In the wilaya of Bejaïa, this park boasts exceptional archaeological and aesthetic treasures.
Taza National Park. 300 ha. In the wilaya of Jijel, this park protects landscapes of rare beauty: humid forests and sandy beaches, the Jijel corniche with its marvellous caves of which little remains, cliffs, chasms... This park is home to some thirty mammals, including the magot monkey, and birds, the finest example of which is the Kabyle nuthatch, a very rare passerine endemic to Algeria.
El-Kala National Park. 80,000 ha. It comprises a group of special ecosystems characterized by wetlands whose diversity is unique in the Mediterranean basin (lakes Oubeira, Mellah and Tonga). In 1990, the park was classified as a national heritage site and biosphere reserve by UNESCO.
Belzma National Park. 7,600 ha. Created in 1984, it is located in the wilaya of Batna.
Tassili National Park. 100,000 ha. This park was classified as a world heritage site by Unesco in 1982 and as a human and biosphere reserve in 1986. The park is archaeological in character, with a number of rock engravings and paintings that make it the world's leading site. It also protects a flora such as the Duprez cypress (tarout), of which there are just over 200 living specimens, and a fauna that is inconspicuous but diverse (mouflon moufflon, gazelles, fish, etc.).
Ahaggar National Park (Hoggar). 380,000 ha. This park is classified for its archaeological and historical wealth, its wildlife, its geology and its grandiose landscapes. Some of its archaeological sites date back 600,000 to 1 million years, and bear witness to the earliest human and prehuman manifestations.
Djebel Aissa National Park. 24,000 ha. This park, located in the Saharan Atlas, was created in 2003. It is home to some rare species.
