I recently went down to the Jumeirah Public Beach to see which animals or plants have made this man-made beach their home.

This park, managed by Dubai Municipality, was completed in the early 1990s. There are several artificial promontories (a mass of land overlooking the sea) on the beach which were made from boulders brought from the mountains of the UAE.

Although the beach proper was devoid of any animals, such as mollusks or their shells, worms and crabs, it was heartening to note that the boulder-strewn areas had been occupied by some marine animals.

The last summer happened to be the worst one in the recent past. We had very little rain during the last winter and spring. So, I was wondering how small creatures were doing.

I started visiting a few parks and private gardens at the start of October. Most parks were without flowers that could attract nectar-drinking insects or birds. In a private compound, I came across a hedge formed by a species of jatropha, possibly Spicy Jatropha, Jatropha integerrima, most of which were in bloom. The dazzling reddish flowers were attracting almost all the insects in the compound.

The flowers were little larger than coat buttons, very showy, and the anthers had lots of yellow pollen. With my naked eye I found no trace of nectar on the plant. On closer look it appeared that the base of the flowers must have had some nectar otherwise why would the tiny ants be visiting the flowers? There were dozens of honeybees visiting jatropha flowers; dashing from one plant to the next.

For some reason, most people do not like foxes while many love dogs, their distant cousins.

Interestingly, the UAE is home to four known fox species.

Foxes in the uae

Dubai Zoo had a rickety female Arabian wolf. It died during the start of the 1990s due to old age.

This was the last known specimen of the animal that had been collected from the wildlife of the UAE. Former Dubai Zoo authorities said that the wolf was obtained from the desert around the mid-1970s.

I often wonder why some animals leave their cosy homes in the cooler environments in Europe and Central Asia and head for the Arabian Peninsula on their way to destinations along the coast of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

During mid-summer, when I went to a coastal area, I found a few clues to the attractions these areas have for the passing migrants in the UAE.

It seems the waters in the Gulf and the bay in the east get richer during summer when the weather pattern and ocean current force nutrients closer to the shore and shallow water.