Saudi Arabia is home to a surprisingly diverse range of wildlife, from large predators and reintroduced herds of oryx to venomous scorpions, migratory raptors, and tiny desert rodents. The kingdom’s 2.15 million square kilometers span rocky mountain ranges, vast sand deserts, coastal wetlands, and scrubby plateaus, each supporting different species adapted to extreme heat and limited water.
Large Mammals
The most iconic animal in Saudi Arabia is the Arabian oryx, a striking white antelope that was hunted to extinction in the wild by the early 1970s. Captive breeding programs brought it back, and today roughly 1,100 Arabian oryx live in the wild across the peninsula, with another 6,000 to 7,000 in captivity. Reintroduced populations roam several Saudi reserves, including the Imam Saud bin Abdulaziz Royal Reserve east of Taif and the Sharaan area near AlUla.
Two gazelle species share these desert landscapes. The Arabian gazelle is found in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the UAE, while the sand gazelle occupies similar terrain. Both were nearly wiped out and now depend heavily on reintroduction programs to rebuild their numbers. In the southwestern mountains, the Nubian ibex thrives in steep, rocky terrain. Jabal Shada al-A’la, a protected area southwest of Al-Baha, holds the largest ibex population in the country.
The grey wolf ranges widely across Saudi Arabia, recorded from low desert valleys at 380 meters elevation up to mountain habitats at 1,460 meters. Striped hyenas, white-tailed mongooses, and small-spotted genets occupy the rougher, rockier terrain of the southwest. The Hamadryas baboon, Saudi Arabia’s only primate, lives in the southwestern region and is commonly spotted near roads and settlements, sometimes raiding garbage bins in towns bordering its mountain habitat.
The Arabian Leopard: A Race Against Extinction
Fewer than an estimated 120 Arabian leopards remain in the wild, making it one of the rarest big cats on Earth. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies it as critically endangered. In the AlUla region of northwestern Saudi Arabia, the last confirmed sighting was in 2002. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute is now working with the Royal Commission for AlUla on captive breeding, habitat restoration, and prey recovery to eventually reintroduce leopards to areas they once roamed.
Smaller Predators and Desert Cats
The caracal, a muscular, tufted-eared wild cat, lives in Saudi Arabia’s highland areas and has been recorded in the Harrat Uwayrid region near AlUla. It is a solitary, mostly nocturnal hunter that preys on birds, rodents, and small antelope.
The sand cat is perhaps the most perfectly desert-adapted feline in the world. It gets nearly all its water from the moisture in its prey, rarely if ever needing to drink. Fur on its footpads lets it walk across scorching sand without burning its paws, and its wide, flat paws work like shovels for digging burrows where it waits out the worst of the daytime heat. A thick coat insulates against freezing desert nights and releases heat during the day, while oversized ears help radiate excess body warmth. Blanford’s fox, Rüppell’s sand fox, and the Arabian red fox round out the smaller predator lineup, each occupying slightly different terrain from sandy lowlands to rocky slopes.
Rodents and Other Small Mammals
Saudi Arabia’s deserts are full of small mammals that are rarely seen but ecologically important. Cheesman’s gerbil and the Baluchistan gerbil are common prey for snakes and owls. The lesser jerboa, a tiny hopping rodent with oversized hind legs, is another classic desert resident. The Indian crested porcupine, which can weigh up to 18 kilograms, lives in the rocky southwestern highlands. Rock hyraxes, small herbivores that look vaguely like guinea pigs but are surprisingly close relatives of elephants, are found in mountain reserves like Jabal Shada al-A’la and Majami’ al-Hadb.
Reptiles and Scorpions
Saudi Arabia hosts 28 recognized species and subspecies of scorpions, classified into three families. The yellow scorpion (also called the deathstalker) is responsible for the highest number of stings across almost every region of the country. In central Saudi Arabia, the fat-tailed black scorpion causes a similar number of incidents. These scorpions are most commonly reported in the Jazan, Al-Medina, Al-Baha, Hail, and Riyadh provinces.
Among snakes, the Arabian sand boa is a small, burrowing species found around Riyadh that feeds primarily on lizards, including fringe-toed lizards and geckos, as well as gerbils and beetles. Burton’s carpet viper and the diadem snake are found in the mountainous southwest. The spiny-tailed lizard, locally called the dhabb, is one of the most recognizable reptiles in the country. Stocky and herbivorous, it basks on rocks across the central and northern deserts. Desert monitor lizards, which can reach over a meter in length, patrol the same terrain looking for eggs, insects, and smaller reptiles.
Birds: Residents and Migrants
Saudi Arabia sits along the African-Eurasian Flyway, making it a critical stopover for millions of birds migrating between breeding grounds in Europe and Asia and wintering areas in Africa. In November 2019, the world’s largest known wintering congregation of steppe eagles was discovered near a landfill at Ushaiqer in central Saudi Arabia, highlighting the peninsula’s importance for raptors.
Falcons hold a special cultural status. Both saker falcons and peregrine falcons migrate through the kingdom, and trapping records stretching from 1989 to 2013 document their passage. Griffon vultures and lappet-faced vultures breed in the southwestern mountains, while the Asian houbara bustard occupies flatter desert terrain and is a traditional quarry for falconers. Common swifts, pallid swifts, and alpine swifts pass through during spring migration, with pallid swifts making an extended stopover along the eastern Red Sea coast.
Resident birds in Saudi cities include house sparrows, Eurasian collared doves, and bulbuls. Sand partridges are common in rockier areas. White storks, common quails, corncrakes, and willow warblers are among the migratory species most frequently recorded south of Jeddah, where researchers monitored flyway traffic from 2008 to 2011.
Protected Areas Preserving Wildlife
Saudi Arabia has established a network of reserves to protect and restore its wildlife. Jabal Shada al-A’la in the southwest protects ibex, gazelles, wolves, foxes, baboons, and vultures across rugged mountain terrain. Majami’ al-Hadb, about 125 kilometers east of Ranyah, shelters wolves, caracals, striped hyenas, mongooses, porcupines, and baboons. The Imam Saud bin Abdulaziz Royal Reserve between Al-Kharmah and Al-Muwayh hosts reintroduced Arabian oryx, sand gazelles, mountain gazelles, houbara bustards, and ostriches.
In the northwest, the AlUla region is the focus of ambitious rewilding efforts led by the Royal Commission for AlUla. Plans include reintroducing the Arabian leopard to landscapes it hasn’t occupied in over two decades, alongside ongoing programs that have already brought back oryx and gazelle populations. These reserves also protect habitat for sand cats, sand boas, sand skinks, and the Arabian hare, species that depend on intact desert ecosystems where prey, shelter, and sparse vegetation remain undisturbed.