Sidi Toui National Park

Sidi Toui National Park is a national park in southern Tunisia. The park opened in 1991. It lies about fifty kilometers south of Ben Gardane. It is about twenty kilometers northwest of the Tunisian-Libyan border. The park extends over 6,315 hectares. A fence entirely encloses it. The park sits on the edge of the Sahara. Its characteristic landscape includes a djebel culminating at 172 meters, steppes, and sand dunes. White sagebrush and other species make up its vegetation.

Sidi Toui National Park, oryx, fennec, and migratory birds

Several Saharan species live in the park. Mammals include the oryx, golden jackal, starving fox, gloved cat, and fennec fox. Reptiles include whiptail, common chameleon, and snakes. Some migratory birds stop there from the Kneiss Islands. Others are sedentary and stay year-round. These include the houbara bustard, gambra partridge, sandgrouse, skylark, common raven, and isabelle courser.

In the past, the park frequented the African ostrich and red hartebeest. The latter survived between Dehiba and Hamada al-Hamra in Libya until 1912. Today, both taxa are extinct in Tunisia. However, a reintroduction project for the red-necked ostrich exists. This project operates in Dghoumès and Bouhedma national parks. It uses individuals brought back from Morocco. The North African hartebeest subspecies (Alcelaphus buselaphus buselaphus) disappeared completely at the beginning of the 20th century. Intensive hunting caused its extinction. Proposals for reintroducing the closest subspecies, that of West Africa (Alcelaphus buselaphus major), have been made. However, no concrete action has taken place to date.