Not officially a country, it falls in an odd position. Spains mandate over it, ended in 26th February 1976, Unfortunately, the various areas continued to debate who owned it, through the 1980s. In 1997 Morocco signed something which was meant to give the people of the western Sahara a choice on independence. However, this never happened. There is no link between the people of the western Sahara and the countries that they are currently (sort of) part of, as with much of Africa the lines were drawn on the map by the Europeans as they carved up the continent. This unrest is still in place, in the sense that the UK foreign office advises against all travel to large parts of the country (the red sections in the map to the right of this)

So, why would you wish to visit this country? What wildlife lives here?

Among the mammal species still found in the Sahara are the gerbil, jerboa, Cape hare, and desert hedgehog; Barbary sheep and scimitar-horned oryx; dorcas gazelle, dama deer, and Nubian wild ass; anubis baboon; spotted hyena, common jackal, and sand fox; and Libyan striped weasel and slender mongoose.

These populations are kept in check by a variety of predators, including sand cat and African wild-cat. While they did live here in the past, the African lion is missing, however the cheetah hangs on in parts of the country (the Saharan cheetah is thought to have one of the lowest densities of predators in the world, but this is not surprising as there is so little prey). Unfortunately, while the Saharan cheetah is present, it is pretty hard to find, and rarely spotted, which means that it is not particularly useful for tourism.

The striped hyena, African golden wolf and pale fox are all least concern, and are able to eke out a living even in this harsh environment (though as in other parts of Africa, all these species are largely nocturnal to avoid competition with its own kind.

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