Flora and Fauna of Western Saudi Arabia

It's of the week, and I thought I'd throw up a quick post about some of the plants and animals in the Rabigh area. I apologize, but I don't know the names of any of the plants, except for the date palm. Sorry also to those who visit this blog for the rich narrative; I fear this one may be a bit picture-heavy.

Despite being only a few kilometers from the Red Sea, it's very dry in Rabigh. I've been here for a month, and it has not rained yet. Sometimes the air gets thick and cool, and I am certain that it will start to pour, but every time, I'm disappointed. I'm told it doesn't rain much. Yet somehow, plants inexplicably find root in even the most inhospitable environments.  Sometimes even when there aren't any others for kilometers around.

 

The ground within twenty kilometers of the coast isn't exactly what I would describe as fertile soil, but despite being dry, rocky, and often barren, it's fairly tightly packed. Once you get closer to the mountains, however, there are larger and larger expanses of sand. This doesn't prevent vegetation from growing...in fact, some species tend to thrive in the sandy ground. Like the weird grasses shown below. Their roots go deep underneath the sand and they are very difficult to pull up!

As you might expect, there aren't a huge amount of animals running around. But there are a lot of animal corpses lying about. I guess no one cares to get rid of them, because often all that's left are piles of fur and bone bleached white from the sun. Sometimes they are recognizable as cats, dogs or various birds. Other times, I've got no clue what I'm looking at.

 

There is a stray dog that I see every day at near the entrance to my school.  I feel sorry for the little guy. It can't be easy being a stray in such a dry, hot place--especially for a pooch. Which is probably why you don't see very many of them around. There is, however, a stray cat in every garbage bin. Especially common is the orange tabby. Some people are kind and feed them food scraps, but others are crass and throw rocks. Sometimes they are visibly disfigured.  So, some of them might hesitantly approach you if your offer them food, but for the most part, they are understandably skittish.

In Vancouver, birds are everywhere. Yet here, I don't realize their absence until I come into an area of moderate vegetation, where, unfailingly, there will be a cadre of small finch-like birds--especially if there are human food-scraps to pick at, as in the parks.

Although it doesn't rain much, KSA needs to provide potable water somehow, and here on the coast, they do it through water desalinization. So, although water is still relatively precious, their are a few parks here and there, which are watered by sprinklers. Plant life here has adapted to the scarcity of water. It sucks the ground around it dry, and retains a lot of moisture. The grass has a particularly interesting survival technique. It seems to spread by creeping across the surface, and putting down roots as it goes, instead of spreading like the kind that I'm used to.

The Palm tree is ubiquitous. It grow wilds, but it's probably also the most common intentionally planted plant in urban areas. Palms line the highways on both sides, and sometimes the meridian as well. Sometime they even dominated the sidewalk, which makes driving more enjoyable (but walking inconvenient).

Although the greenery here isn't as common as I would like it to be, it's still here. It's an encouraging reminder of life's tenacious ability to adapt to harsh and inhospitable environments. I often wonder what the landscape must have looked like two or three thousand years ago. I wonder how and when the Arbian ecosystem transitioned from the verdant savannah it must have been at one time to the mostly dry and barren place it is today. I wonder how the process could be reversed.

One idea I have is to set up large fields of solar cells on the fringes of the desert, creating a canopy to prevent water from evaporating, and then using the collected energy to pump in desalinized water to saturate the ground, and allow things to grow underneath. If this were done on a large enough scale, it would effect the water cycle, encouraging rainfall and a self-sustaining ecosystem...food for thought.