Mauritania’s mudflats shelter a hemispheric bird metropolis
Banc d’Arguin National Park guards the Atlantic shore between Nouakchott and Nouadhibou—the vanished Tamanrasset River mouth—as a World Heritage wetland founded in 1976 to shield fisheries, geology, and birds. Immense tidal flats welcome well over a million migrant shorebirds funneling from Arctic breeding grounds.
The park occupies Mauritania's Atlantic coast between the capital Nouakchott and the port of Nouadhibou, at what was once the mouth of the Tamanrasset River. It was set up in 1976 to protect wildlife, geologically interesting sites and the fisheries that matter so much to the national economy. The surrounding sea ranks among the richest fishing grounds in West Africa and acts as a nursery for fish stocks across the region.
Its tidal flats hold some of the least disturbed seagrass beds on earth, and a mild climate with little human interference makes it one of the world's key refuges for migrant shorebirds. More than two million waders from northern Europe, Siberia and Greenland winter here. Peak counts include up to a million dunlin, 500,000 bar-tailed godwits, 366,000 red knots, nearly 250,000 curlew sandpipers and about 96,000 greater flamingos. At least 108 bird species have been recorded, drawn from both Eurasian and African realms, and BirdLife International lists it as an Important Bird Area.
Breeding is just as impressive. Between 25,000 and 40,000 pairs of 15 species nest on sandbanks and islands such as Tidra, Niroumi, Nair, Kijji and Arguim, forming West Africa's largest waterbird colonies. White pelicans, reed cormorants, Caspian and West African crested terns, grey herons and western reef herons all breed, and with Cintra Bay and the Dakhla Peninsula to the north it is a major wintering area for Eurasian spoonbills. Offshore, endangered Mediterranean monk seals and Atlantic humpback dolphins live year-round, joined at times by orcas, pilot whales and fin whales.
People are part of the system. About 500 Imraguen live in seven villages inside the park and fish for subsistence with traditional gear, and motorboats are banned. The biggest threat now comes from the international trade in sharks and rays, which over the past decade has tempted locals to catch these protected animals illegally.
Source: Banc d'Arguin National Park
