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Article: Egypt's scarce wildlife gets little help
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- June 25, 1989
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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CAIRO Ibrahim Helmy fights for what is probably a lost cause -
the salvation of Egypt's endangered wildlife. On more than one
occasion, he has nearly died for it.
A zoologist and naturalist, Helmy has spent most of his adult
life crisscrossing the vast wastes of the Sinai and Western deserts,
tracking and observing the elusive cheetah, leopard, gazelle and
ostrich that once inhabited these desolate plains in abundance.
In 1964, Helmy's vehicle fell into a patch of quicksand in the
Qattara depression. He escaped but was forced to walk 120 miles
without food or water.
He was less lucky two years ago when, studying gerbils near
Sharm el Sheik in the Sinai, he backed his four-wheel-drive ...