FAUI^IAL DISTRICTS AND AREAS 



All of the Sudan, from an overall zoo geographical standpoint, 

 lies within the Ethiopian Faunal Region (Figure l) except the 

 desert wastes in the extreme northwestern corner that are included 

 in the Falaearctic Faunal Region. 



Faunal Districts, although based on a combination of factors, 

 are mightily influenced in the Sudan by quantity and seasonal dis- 

 tribution of rainfall. The effect of rauifall is dramatically il- 

 lustrated as one travels from north to south by the gradual grada- 

 tion from extreme desert to African savannah with few trees and 

 short prass in the north and irore numerous trees and tall elephant 

 grass in the south. Restricted patches of "jungle- type" forest 

 are encountered in western Bquatoria, along the Congo watershed, 

 and in the mountains of eastern Equatoria. 



Except for a small component of the fauna that requires a 

 cool climate combined with relatively high rainfall and ^s there- 

 fore confined to the highlands of eastern Equatoria, distribution 

 of animal life in the Sudan is in general less modified by ex- 

 tremes of temperature than by rainfall. Those animals that do 

 ranpe into the Sudanese plains are per se adapted to high temper- 

 atures and within the Sudan their dlHrTBution is limited pri- 

 marily by floral and rainfall factors. Before differences in 

 temperature extremes can exert definitive influence the animal 

 has succumbed to extremes of other factors. 



The Faunal Districts of the Sudan and of the remainder of 

 the Ethiopian Faunal Region (Figure 3),, as delineated by Chapm 

 (1932) for birds, nicely illustrate zoo geographical relation- 

 ships and differences on a continental basis. Disregarding the 

 bulee of the Falaearctic Faunal Region into northeastern Sudan, 

 a barren and almost entirely lifeless desert, the northernmost 

 f-inge of the country is part of the narrow Sudanese Arid Dis- 

 trict belt that extends across Afriaa from the Atlantic to the 

 Red Sea. As readily reaJAzed from data concerning temperature 

 (nat-e 831), rainfall (pa-e 83^), and vegetation (page 837), the 

 eSremely sparse animal life that exists here is liiTated to the 

 world's Ls? highly adapted xerophilic species. Bordering this 

 ^strict to the south, the Sudanese Savannah District, extending 

 from the Atlantic to the Ethiopian highlands, embraces most of 



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