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29 March 2024

Poaching threatens Saudi wild animals

The Uromastyx lizard found in the Saudi desert.

Published
By Staff

Poaching in Saudi Arabia is threatening the extinction of many species of wild animals, especially the ‘Uromastyx’ lizard, the Sabq news website has reported.

The recent picture of a young man standing on the back of his vehicle, carrying two guns, and showing thousands of the uromastyx lizards killed,  was described as an environmental disaster by Sabq.

According to the news site, the website’s visitors demanded intervention of the National Commission for Wildlife to prosecute the young man and his companions for the killing of the lizards.

They said such poaching will lead to extinction of the Uromastyx from the Saudi desert.

They said poaching had led to the disappearance of the Uromastyx  from many parts of the Saudi desert though they were widely seen a few years earlier.

Abdullah Al Gahadani, a hunter, told Sabq that the Uromastyx had become endangered because of illegal hunting in the kingdom.

Gahadani condemned the misconduct of the young men who appeared in the photo and described it as a crime and urged punishment for them. He thought this hunting was probably done either in Al Saman area or at the eastern end of the Empty Quarter or in the northern regions of the kingdom.