National Animals and Diverse Wildlife of Chad

May 30, 2025 0

Chad is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. Bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon to the southwest, Nigeria to the southwest (at Lake Chad), and Niger to the west, Chad boasts a variety of habitats that support unique and amazing wildlife. Chad has several regions: the Sahara desert in the north, an arid zone in the center known as the Sahel, and a more fertile Sudanian Savanna zone in the south.

Chad actually has two national animals. In the north, it is the goat and in the south, it’s the lion. The goat was probably chosen for its overall usefulness as it provides milk, meat, and hide.

Lion, one of Chad's national animals.

Chad's Geography and Climate

Chad is a large landlocked country spanning north-central Africa, covering an area of 1,284,000 square kilometers (496,000 sq mi). It lies between latitudes 7° and 24°N, and 13° and 24°E. The dominant physical structure is a wide basin bounded to the north and east by the Ennedi Plateau and Tibesti Mountains, which include Emi Koussi, a dormant volcano reaching 3,414 meters (11,201 ft) above sea level.

Each year a tropical weather system known as the intertropical front crosses Chad from south to north, bringing a wet season that lasts from May to October in the south, and from June to September in the Sahel. Variations in local rainfall create three major geographical zones.

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The Sahara: Lies in the country's northern third.
The Sahel: A belt in Chad's centre; precipitation there varies from 300 to 600 mm (11.8 to 23.6 in) per year.
The Sudanian Zone: The southern zone consists of broad grasslands or prairies suitable for grazing.

Vegetation is dominantly tropical in the tropical zone of the country with deserts having least vegetative growth. The montane vegetation on the massif is rich, unlike the vegetation that is in the lowlands. Woody vegetation occurs in some deep gorges of the Ennedi massif, which rises to 1,450 metres (4,760 ft). A flat terrain supports Sahelian grasslands.

Topography of Chad.

Wildlife Diversity

Chad's animal and plant life correspond to the three climatic zones. In the Saharan region, the only flora is the date-palm groves of the oasis. Palms and acacia trees grow in the Sahelian region. The southern, or Sudanic, zone consists of broad grasslands or prairies suitable for grazing. As of 2011, there were 2,288 species of plants in the country, 55 of which are endemic.

At last count, Chad had 134 kinds of mammals, 532 types of birds, 179 species of fish found in Lake Chad, and a number of species of insects and reptiles, including snakes and crocodiles. The top animals in Chad can be found in such parks, reserves, and forests as Zakouma National Park, Aouk National Park, Manda National Park, and Goz Beïda National Park.

Lake Chad has 179 species of fish which feed on vegetation, phytoplankton and zooplankton. Some of the species reported are catfish (Clarias gariepensis), tilapia, cichlids, characin (Alestes baremoze) and Nile perch (Lates niloticus). Lungfish and sailfin are the two other unique species in the lake.

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Other species reported are; red-fronted gazelle, dorcas gazelle (Gazella rufifrons, Gazella dama, Gazella dorcas), patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas), striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), Sudan cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii), caracal (Felis caracal), and Chadian wild dog (Lycaon pictus sharicus), African elephant (Loxodonta africana), otter (Lutra maculicollis), Aonyx capensis, sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekei) and kob (Kobus kob).

Animals of Chad

Hippopotamus
Elephants
African Buffalo
African Bush Elephant
Spotted Hyena
Striped Hyena
African Golden Wolf
Fennec Fox
Lions, cheetahs, sand cats and servals, leopards, and genets
Egyptian Mongoose
Gambian Sun Squirrel
Crested Porcupine
Western Saharan Spiny Mouse
Several Species of Gerbil, including the Pygmy Gerbil and Tarabui’s Gerbil
Several Species of Shrews
Many Unique Species of Bats, including the Butterfly Bat, the Tiny Serotine, and the Naked-Rumped Tomb Bat

An amazing variety of fauna lives in Chad. They include lions, cheetahs, sand cats and servals, leopards, and genets. Chad is also home to the Egyptian mongoose and rodents such as the Gambian sun squirrel, the crested porcupine, the Western Saharan spiny mouse, and several species of gerbil, including the pygmy gerbil and Tarabui’s gerbil.

There are several species of shrews and many unique species of bats, including the butterfly bat, the tiny serotine, and the naked-rumped tomb bat. Chad is home to the spotted hyena, the striped hyena and the African golden wolf, and the amazing, desert-dwelling fennec fox with its huge ears.

Though Chad is a landlocked country, much of its wildlife is found in and around Lake Chad. Fish include cichlids and tilapia, sailfins, and the Nile perch. Birds in Chad include the ostrich, cormorants, pelicans, herons and egrets, the sacred ibis, storks, ducks, swans and geese, and the lesser flamingo.

Other birds are owls, avocets, buttonquails, thick-knees, pheasants and grouse, cranes, and guinea fowl. Reptiles that are native to Chad include cobras including the Katian and black-necked spitting cobras. Others are the African rock python and Mocquard’s writhing skink. Amphibians found in Chad include the sub desert toad, the Senegal running frog, the Sudan mastigure, and the Tassilian agama.

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Insects include the beautiful cabbage tree emperor moth, the Angola white lady butterfly, the silky sugar ant, locusts, grasshoppers, and dragonflies.

Protected Areas and Conservation Efforts

The protected parks, reserves, protection forests, reforestation areas, and Ramsar Wetlands of international importance in the country include the IUCN Level II categorized Aouk (7,400 km2 or 2,900 sq mi), Goz Beïda, Manda (1,140 km2 or 440 sq mi), and Zakouma (3,000 km2 or 1,200 sq mi) national parks.

Aside from the numerous protected forests, Tibesti Massif is also a protected area. In addition to parks and reserves, eight Important Bird Areas (IBAs) have been identified and supported by BirdLife International. These cover 11.2 percent of the country, an area of 146,500 square kilometres (56,600 sq mi), some overlapping with parks and reserves.

Reserves that have some protection are Bahr Salamat, Beinamar, Larmanaye, Abou Telfane, Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Binder-Léré, Fada Archei, Mandelia and Siniala-Minia. The rare desert crocodile can be found in the Ennedi Plateau along with the equally rare North African ostrich.

Environmental Challenges and Conservation Issues

Still, these numbers have fallen greatly since the beginning of the 20th century from poaching, habitat destruction, and hunting. These activities have caused some creatures to go extinct in Chad or to hover at the edge of going extinct.

In Chad forest cover is around 3% of the total land area, equivalent to 4,313,000 hectares (ha) of forest in 2020, down from 6,730,000 hectares (ha) in 1990. In 2020, naturally regenerating forest covered 4,293,000 hectares (ha) and planted forest covered 19,800 hectares (ha). Extensive deforestation has resulted in loss of trees such as acacias, baobab, dates and palm trees.

This has also caused loss of natural habitat for wild animals; one of the main reasons for this is also hunting and livestock farming by increasing human settlements. Poaching is a serious problem in the country, particularly of elephants for the profitable ivory industry and a threat to lives of rangers even in the national parks such as Zakouma. The problem is exacerbated by understaffing.

Elephants have been massacred in herds in and around the parks by organized poaching. Because Chad’s national parks are unfortunately understaffed, elephants are subject to poaching for their ivory. Sometimes poachers massacre entire herds of elephants.

Some of the endangered species in Chad:

Slender-billed curlew
Northwest African cheetah
West African lion
African wild ass
African wild dog

In a bid last week to show his country’s commitment to curbing the multibillion-dollar-a-year illegal ivory trade, Chadian President Idriss Déby set aflame a large pile of confiscated tusks during a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of Zakouma National Park. The park was home to 4,000 elephants about a decade ago, but that figure has dwindled to just 450 today.

Elephants in Zakouma National Park.

The World Wildlife Fund reports more than 20,000 elephants are killed around the world every year for their ivory tusks, with the majority in Central Africa. Recent steps have been taken to reverse the trend; the U.N. issued a ban on the commercial trade of elephant ivory. But park rangers on the ground say more must be done to fend off the well-armed poachers, some of whom cross the region’s porous borders.

More dangerous even than these large mammals is the tiny mosquito. Mosquitoes that live in Chad’s tropical regions can transmit malaria, which led to 409,000 deaths in 2019. The tsetse fly transmits a deadly disease called sleeping sickness, and as Chad is found in the eastern part of the continent, the form of sleeping sickness is acute as opposed to chronic.