Wildlife of Morocco

The wildlife of Morocco is composed of its flora and fauna. The country has a wide range of terrains and climate types and a correspondingly large diversity of plants and animals. The coastal areas have a Mediterranean climate and vegetation while inland the Atlas Mountains are forested. Further south, the borders of the Sahara Desert are increasingly arid. Large mammals are not particularly abundant in Morocco, but rodents, bats and other small mammals are more plentiful. Four hundred and ninety species of birds have been recorded here.

Morocco is a country in northwestern Africa. The land borders include Western Sahara in the southwest and Algeria to the south and east. To the north and west Morocco has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean; to the north it abuts the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea. It encompasses a wide range of terrain types; there is a coastal plain in the north, and many mountain ranges running from east to west across the country, with the Rif Mountains in the northern half and the Atlas Mountains further south. The southern borders are where the Atlas foothills merge into the edges of the Sahara Desert.

The coastal plain has a Mediterranean climate but is affected by the upwelling cold Canary Current close off-shore; this gives it wet winters and warm summers. The Rif Mountains rise to 2,455 m (8,050 ft) and have mountain ridges cut by gorges and valleys and clad with forests of Atlas cedar, cork oak, holm oak, and Moroccan fir. The climate here is Mediterranean with up to 2,000 mm (79 in) of precipitation, hot summers and mild winters. The Middle and High Atlas mountains have a more continental climate, with colder winters and hotter summers. At elevations above 1,000 m (3,281 ft), the climate is alpine with warm summers and very cold winters. At these altitudes, the forests give way to alpine meadows, and there are flat-topped summits, terraced cliffs, escarpments and deep gorges.

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