Egypt’s food chains

Whether in the Nile or in the desert, every chain starts with plants (or algae). Without them there would be no food for the herbivores, and so none for the carnivores. Each animal in a chain has a role that helps keep the place in balance. If the fennec fox ate too few jerboas, there would be too many; if there were too many, the seeds would disappear. In the desert of Fayoum there is a place called Wadi al-Hitan, “the Valley of the Whales”. It holds fossils of ancient whales that lived in a sea there tens of millions of years ago. The fossils tell us that the land was once covered by water and had different living things.