The first two titles in the new AUC Press Nature Foldouts series have just been published and are guaranteed to appeal to all lovers of all ages of Egypt's natural heritage. The author and illustrator of both is Dominique Navarro and the scientific consultant for Egypt's Floral & Fauna is the indefatigable defender, observer and recorder of Egyptian wildlife Richard Hoath, with ornithologist and Egyptologist John Wyatt being the scientific consultant for Birds of the Nile Valley. A striking hoopoe is one of the species adorning the cover of the birds' foldout, resting on a Pharaonic depiction of the hoopoe, as familiar in ancient Egypt as it is today. Species accompanying the hoopoe on the front cover of the foldout include the black and white Pied Kingfisher, seen the length of the Nile Valley hovering before it plunges for the kill, and a male Nile Valley Sunbird, in all the iridescent blue-green and golden glory of his summer plumage. Both Nature Foldouts pack in a lot of useful and varied information, as well as being attractively illustrated with accurate renditions of the species featured, together with historical references as well as the Egyptian landscape and Pharaonic monuments. Important bird areas of Egypt are listed and mapped on the birds' foldout and Egypt's natural protectorates on the flora and fauna foldout. Over five million birds overfly the Nile in autumn and spring on their annual migrations, a wonderful sight to be seen in central Cairo and throughout the Nile Valley. These migrants include the White Stork, which has the helpful tendency for the observer of circling slow and low in the sky. One of the largest winter arrivals is the Greater Flamingo whose flocks settle in wetland areas such as Lake Qarun in the Fayoum Governorate. In spring, the brilliant Little Green Bee-eater graces the skies and perches on phone and electricity wires. Owls, much loved in Europe and the symbol of wisdom in Greece, are the subject of superstition in modern Egypt, while sufficiently revered by the ancient Egyptians to be among the many birds depicted as hieroglyphs, illustrated in Birds of the Nile Valley. While a diversity of birds can be seen in Egypt, even in Downtown Cairo, for most of the species featured in Egypt's Flora & Fauna, with a few exceptions, it is another matter. The camel, or dromedary, as we should but don't call the beast, is a common and favourite sight, but we have to travel to Lake Nasser now to see the famous Nile Crocodile in the wild. Other than for the dedicated amateur and professional naturalist, sightings of most of the canine, feline and other species, such as the delightful Rock Hyrax and Dorcas Gazelle, illustrated in Egypt's Flora and Fauna are very rare. Dominique Navarro stresses the need for conservation. In this respect the ancient Egyptians did rather better. “The archeologically curious tourist wandering around the grand pillared halls of ancient temples becomes an inadvertent naturlaist, gazing upon wildlife carved reverently in relief upon the walls, while birds and bats and geckos abound in every crack and crevice. Ancient Egyptians were the first natural historians, documenting the flora and fauna of their environment in sculptures and paintings, with such precision that an ornithologist can discern the exact species of a bird depicted. The early Egyptians venerated biodiversity, dependent as they were on the natural world and living in balance with the environment."
