Aim This article tracks the evolution of the distribution of ostrich populations, Struthio camelus L., 1758, in Egypt from the Late Pleistocene up to present times with a view to establishing a series of distribution maps for the historical period. An attempt is then made to describe and interpret these maps.Location The country considered is Egypt.Methods We compiled all the information about the presence of the ostrich in Egypt collected from the study of fossil remains, archaeological materials and from the narrative of travellers since the fourteenth century. From the accounts of these travellers, three maps showing the location of this birds in this country are established: from the end of the fourteenth century to the end of the seventeenth century; from the beginning of the eighteenth to the end of the nineteenth century; and lastly, for the twentieth century. ResultsThe ostrich was abundant and broadly distributed in Egypt in the past. However, it has been constantly in decline. It disappeared from the north of the country and lived only in the southeast up to the end of the nineteenth century. The birds reappeared in the latter region at the beginning of the 1960s up to 1991 before disappearing from the country. Main conclusionsThe principal reasons for the decline of the ostrich in Egypt are the aridi®cation caused by climatic changes and intensive hunting by humans. It is possible that this bird was not sighted in the country between the beginning of the twentieth century and the 1960s, not because it had disappeared, but most probably because it was suf®ciently discrete to be noticed.

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Thanks to a colour reproduction faithfully completed by French explorer Frédéric Cailliaud in the early XIXth century, we are able to view a missing Theban painting dating from the reign of Amenophis II (under the New Empire). It depicts a hunting scene in the desert and an oryx whose morphology and, above all, whose coat colouration obviously match those of the Arabian Oryx. Consequently, we put forward the hypothesis of the possible presence of the Arabian Oryx in the Eastern Desert in Egypt during pharaonic times.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Barbary sheep Ammotragus lervia was still present throughout the whole of Egypt except for the Sinai region. However, by the beginning of the 20th century it had disappeared from the Nile Delta region and from the Faiyum Oasis. In 1950 it was still present in the extreme south-east and in a small stretch of land in the Eastern Desert, and in half of the Western Desert. Today it is found only in the extreme south-east (Gebel Elba) and the extreme south-west (Gebel Uweinat and/or Gilf El Kebir) of the country. This sharp decrease in the distribution area of Ammotragus lervia is the result of intensive hunting by humans. The Barbary sheep of Gebel Elba now live in a region that has been designated a national park, which offers some protection. The Barbary sheep populations in the Uweinat/Gilf El Kebir area is in rapid decline, and it is now urgent that the Egyptian government enforce effective conservation measures to safeguard the last wild populations of Barbary sheep still present in its territory.

This paper presents the historical ecology and biogeography of the addax, Addax nasomaculatus, in Egypt from the Late Pleistocene to the present, and tracks the evolution of its population distribution there during this period. Human hunting principally caused the extinction of this hippotraginae during the 1960s in Egypt, as well as throughout the entire northern part of the Sahara.