Group in Alexandria Saving Egyptian wildlife

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt – 28 June 2017: A small team of seven members is making an extraordinary effort to save wild animals in Egypt, especially the tortoise and sea turtle populations.

“Sea turtles are endangered worldwide, though they are illegally traded here in Egypt. And although the right procedure is to notify the Ministry of Environment for the sea turtles to be confiscated, sometimes we are short of time and we need to save the sea turtle before being slaughtered and sold, so we have to buy it to release it back in the sea,” May Gawad, the founder of the Alexandria Turtle and Wildlife Rescue Team, told Egypt Today.

Gawad said that her team has been volunteering for animal rescue since 2008, and though they only started working with wild animals three years ago, they have helped rescue and release 44 sea turtle since then.


May Gawad with the sea turtle - via team’s official Facebook page


Shutz American school awareness campaign - via team’s official Facebook page

The team members are May Gawad (founder), Barbra Hultman, Amer Mahmoud, Ahmed Ashraf, Dr. AbdulHakim El Alawy, Hatem Moushir and Wendy Freeman (British Counsel General honorary member).

The team makes awareness campaigns in schools and cultural centers to raise children’s awareness of wild life in Egypt. They work with several schools, including American Schutz, A.L.S, the British school and other schools in Alexandria. The schools volunteer to buy the sea turtle and the students go for a field trip to release the turtle back into the sea.

The team held the first conference for Turtles in Egypt, which was held on of May 19, 2017 at the British council.


May Gawad with the sea turtle - via team’s official Facebook page


AIA school before releasing a sea turtle - via team’s official Facebook page


The Egyptian Turtle is now totally extinct in Egypt and comes from Libya. A campaign was made in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment for the resettlement of 43 Egyptian turtles into their natural habitat. They were released in the nature protectorate of Omaid, near Marsa Matrouh, which was the natural habitat for the Egyptian turtles before extinction in Egypt.

The Alexandria Turtle and Wildlife Rescue Team also help volunteering at the Alexandria Zoo with medicines and efforts in restoration and painting of animal houses.


X-rays before releasing Egyptian turtles - via team’s official Facebook page


The release of the Egyptian Turtles in “Omair”protectorate - via team’s official Facebook page


May Gawad and her family withSea Turtles - via team’s official Facebook page

“The management of the zoo in Alexandria are very good and Dr. Iman Mekhaimar, the zoo manager is very helpful. The animals are in good condition, though the salaries of the workers are very low, which compels the workers to wait until visitors come to feed the animals so they can take the tips and if this problem is solved the animals will be in better conditions,” Gawad told Egypt Today.

“Our Experience with the foxes began when we had a notification of a Fennec fox found in the King Mariut area of Alexandria, and this fox is a very rare species, he was taken to the vet for medical care then released into the nature protectorate” Gawad added.

The team now works with rescuing foxes - they receive foxes from different parts of Egypt, they have volunteering vets who provide medical supervision and a feeding system, then with coordination with the nature protectorate they retrain them on catching living prey so they can survive in the protectorate.


Red Foxes - via team’s official Facebook page


Red Foxes - via team’s official Facebook page


Fennec Fox - via team’s official Facebook page

“One time we received a very rare wild jungle cat, who was found in the area of Abo Hummus. We received a call that there were two wild baby cats found, unfortunately their mother was shot as people had mistaken it for a leopard,” Gawad said. The cats were taken care of, but one died and the other was donated to the zoo.


Jungle cat - via team’s official Facebook page


Releasing the foxes at the”Omair”protectorate - via team’s official Facebook page

“Street animals need to be sterilized and vaccinated instead of being poisoned, and there are a lot of organizations that can volunteer in this matter but they need to get confirmation that the animals won’t be killed or poisoned afterwards,” May added.



May Gawad at the zoo - via team’s official Facebook page


Wasim Alsarahany with th Egyptian Turtles - via team’s official Facebook page/span>