Ammotragus lervia (Pallas, 1777).

This is a fairly large and heavily built wild sheep with a head-and-body length of 130-165 cm; it is 75-110 cm high at the shoulder. It is generally sandy brown in color with a long darker mane on the sides of the jaw, the neck, chest, and upper forelegs. The horns are curved out, back, and down, keeled at the front and larger in the male than the female. The Barbary Sheep lives in the sandy desert near the rocky outcrops. It is herbivorous and feeds on desert vegetation including the bitter gourd. It obtains the moisture it needs from vegetation but drinks if water is available. The gestation period is just over five months and a single lamb is born. It lives solitarily or in groups; it is extremely alert and shy and is active in the cooler hours of dawn and dusk. Until recently, it was thought to be extinct in Egypt; it is now known that it still survives in isolated areas in the southeastern part of the Eastern Desert and Gebel Uweinat and Gilf el-Kebir. Throughout its North African range, it is an endangered species.

Addax nasomaculatus (de Blainville, 1816).

This is a large antelope; 110-130 cm long and 95-115 cm high at the shoulder. It is characterized by distinctive white markings on the face, ears, and belly, while the general color is pale in summer becoming darker in winter. Both male and female have long (65 cm or more) slender horns in an open spiral. The wide hooves with flat soles allow it to move easily on the soft sand of its desert habitat. The Addax is active from dusk to dawn. It feeds on desert grasses and spends most of its life without drinking as it receives sufficient water from its food. The gestation period is eight and a half months and a single calf is born. Endangered throughout its range; the addax has become extinct in Egypt during the last 100 years.