Dubai’s a sprawling high-rise glitzy city, right? So where can anyone possibly interact with any form of wildlife apart from at the Dubai Zoo? Deep within the city or not too far away where the concrete crumbles into sand are wildlife experiences beyond all expectations. From the horse’s mouth, here are the big five of Dubai.
1. Swim with sharks
The tawny nurse shark stares passively at me through one pale blue eye. Her sensory barbels tickle the cage I am snorkeling in, while she searches for food. Surmising that she won’t find it apart from between those bars (I say ‘she’ because a nurse kind of indicates that) she moves off to swim with others like her — blacktip, grey reef, bamboo, horned, zebra, swell and wobbegong plus 69 other marine species at the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo, bang in the middle of Dubai Mall.
When we climbed backwards into the aluminium cage a resident bunch of barramundi had already taken up a prime safe position away from predators, for transparent acrylic covers the bars on the two long sides and at the bottom. The cage holds four people at one time plus the instructor.
A sand tiger shark slips silently past on my left while a blotched fantail stingray cruises way beneath my feet, slowly flapping its circular-shaped disc. Two unicorn fish with extraordinarily horn-like appendages between their eyes negotiate through an open side to brush my ankles, completely ignoring my excited yelps, somewhat muffled through a snorkel.
“Last year 791 people were killed by defective toasters,” states my guide Tata Jemray. And your point is? The point is that we are not food for sharks. Far less people have been killed by sharks than by toasters, yet sharks carry this stigma. As many as 80 per cent of some shark species have been killed by man, which is why some are now protected by law from shark fining and fishing.
Like a goldfish I watch spectators in the tunnel below snapping away at the shoals goggling through the ‘single largest acrylic panel’ at 32.88 metres long by 8.3 metres high, according to Guinness World Records.
As I climb out, a Napoleon Wrasse gives me a wink.
2. Watch flamingoes
It’s quiet down at Flamingo Hide off the Oud Metha Road most times of the day, but at 9am and 4pm there is a rosy flush of excitement. The supplementary food truck from the Wildlife Protection office has arrived.
Swathes of pale pink, flashes of deeper pink and white wings flap expectantly around the food handler at Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary at one end of the Dubai Creek. Once the feed hits the water there’s a scrum of pink stick legs supporting feathers and long necks that are plunged into the water, the upside-down beaks filtering it furiously. At peak times there are more than 3,000 here.
Once replete, calm descends upon the sanctuary again. Although the greater flamingoes are the draw cards, some quiet time spent in the basic wooden hide at the end of a wooden walkway reveals just how many resident and wintering birds love these nutrient-rich mudflats.
Thousands of birds from Africa, Asia and Europe have used this area to rest and refuel while on their annual migration on the invisible East Asia/East Africa flyway, long before the sanctuary was established in 1985. Maintained by Dubai Municipality, its website cites housing around 270 species. Good news is that about half the flamingoes and birds remain here in the hot summer months.
At Mangrove Hide, the only other operational hide and off the main Hatta to Dubai road, a semi-permanent Leica telescope helps in zooming in on broad-billed sandpiper, Pacific golden plovers, black-winged stilts, western reef egret, grey heron and sometimes Eurasian spoonbill.
It costs nothing to sit in the hide; permits are only needed for large groups. And while it may seem disappointing not to get closer to the wildlife, the surrounding fence prevents birds such as the Kentish plover, which nests in the cracked camouflaged open ground, from being wiped out should an unaware walker crush its eggs underfoot.
3. Ride with a dolphin
Smooth as marble but warm and springy, to touch a bottle-nosed dolphin is awesome enough, but to feel their power as they effortlessly speed through the water at around 20km per hour gives one a whole new perspective. So strong yet so gentle, when Tetka, Fekla, Jerry and Senya offer you their dorsal fin you take it.
At the Dubai Dolphinarium, instructor Gabriel Affrim shouts instructions. “Hold onto the dorsal fin. Lie sideways not across the back. Don’t put your hands over their nose or eyes. Don’t hang onto the tail. Don’t let go halfway round. Wait for them to come to you,” and when they do, he yells, “Take it!”
Clearly the marine mammals only do this if they want to — if they don’t, you are simply left alone in the cold, clear blue 22 degrees Celsius water. While not slippery you do have to hang on tight, especially when two dolphins sidle up and present their fins simultaneously. It’s nothing like trailing behind a boat on a rubber tube — this is a real, live animal taking full control. The beauty of this 20-minute experience as opposed to the open sea is that of safety and being able to touch and be carried off by these very special mammals.
It’s good to know that these were never free roaming; they were bred at the Karadag Biostation in Crimea, Ukraine, and share a special relationship with the same trainers since departing from those shores 20 years ago, says Trail Stocker, educator at the Dubai Dolphinarium. “If you don’t have a good relationship with them they won’t work for you, it’s as simple as that.”
Maintaining the sub-species from the Black Sea is complex too for they need the right food. “Our fish in the Arabian Gulf are too lean,’ he says, so capelin, salmon and horse mackerel are regularly imported from Norway and Belgium.
4. Tracking wildlife
There’s a primeval thrill in following animal tracks in the sand. Maybe it’s because somewhere deep down in our DNA — without all the trimmings of sophistication our evolution has led us to — we know we are hunters and gatherers.
Pursue a trail of fresh heart-shaped spoor and the chances of finding an Arabian gazelle grazing at the other end are fairly high. Breathe in the cool morning air that gently brushes the skin awake and listen to the mesmerising stillness. We in Dubai have forgotten what silence is.
Duane Eksteen is among the field guides at Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa who lead visitors into the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR) on nature walks. Even ants leave tiny footprints in the golden dunes, reminding us that every creature has a purpose in the great circle of life.
Eksteen can distinguish between the tracks of an Arabian gazelle and an oryx and whether a francolin or a bustard crossed the road ahead, but he rates seeing a sandfish in the open as virtually impossible. “It’s like a golden lizard and walks above ground but as soon as it feels threatened it dives into the sand,” he says. What you do see is a kick and swirl of grains as it burrows away from danger.
Scruffy tracks around a burrow indicate Leptien’s spiny-tailed lizard is either dozing below or has left the building. As we do the ghaf tree walk, Eksteen seems impressed. “When the Bedouins travelled through the desert they would stop here, pitch their tents and start digging because these amazing drought-resistant trees push their roots straight down 30 metres or so, to reach the ground water.”
Under a fire-bush, we spot a lone female gazelle resting in the shade. It’s warming up now and time to head back home. By the end of the day my tracks too will have shifted in the sand.
5. Turtle feeding
When a plastic bag floats in water it resembles a slow-moving jellyfish. As this delicacy is the top choice on the menu for some species of turtles, it can be mistakenly ingested. And when it is, the turtle end up very sick. If it is lucky enough to be brought to the Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project operated by the Wildlife Protection Office and Burj Al Arab Aquarium, it could have a camera put down its throat to take a look inside.
Ibrahim Jalmaani, Senior Aquarist at the Burj Al Arab Aquarium, speaks to an enthralled group of children who have gathered around the main turtle enclosure at the Mina A’Salam Hotel. “Most times plastic rubbish of some sort is seen in the stomach. If it hadn’t been found the turtle would have died a slow and painful death,” he adds, then tells them about the number one predator — humans. “Jet skis, boats and plastic,” he shakes his head. “Down there in the water is a turtle we named Propeller. Why do you think that is?”
A small boy dressed in blue knows. “Yes — it got paralysed by a boat so now swims using only its two front flippers.” The children then get to feed the turtles themselves. Handfuls of vegetation and fish are pulled out of a bucket then hurled into the water below. This free interaction with turtles for Dubai residents and hotel guests is held every Wednesday and Friday at 11am or 1pm respectively.
Asked by the same small boy why they can’t “sick them up”, he is told that turtle throats are designed in such as way that prevents regurgitation, so the plastic gets trapped in the gut, the food decomposes and ensuing gas causes the reptile to float and starve to death or get hit by a boat.
