The diet of fennec fox has been investigated for the first time from scats collected during one year in three localities of the north-eastern Algerian Sahara: Guemar and Sanderouce (near Oued Souf) and Bamendil (near Ouargla). In Guemar, 160 items in 20 scats were identified including 93 insects (58.1 %), 11 plant fragments (6.9 %) and 38 dates of Phoenix dactylifera (23.8 %). In terms of biomass, with 37.4 % plant material was the most abundant, followed by birds (29.9 %) and mammals (14.9 %). In Sanderouce, 491 items in 37 scats were identified including 377 insects (77.1 %), 10 plant fragments (2.0 %) and 29 dates (5.9 %). In terms of biomass mammals (56.6 %) were far more abundant than squamates (15.4 %) and vegetal food (12.8 %). In Bamendil, 1246 items in 57 scats were identified; insects were the most numerous (87.9 %) followed by mammals (only 3.7 %), however the biomass of mammals was the highest (63.5 %) followed by birds (19.8 %) and insects (5.5 %). As was suggested by behavioural records, the diet of the fennec fox was mainly carnivorous, but included a significant amount of vegetal items, particularly dates collected in oases.
Birds comprised 51.9% of the diet of a pair of common kestrels Falco tinnunculus in 1997 in a suburb of Algiers. Insects were the most numerous prey type between 1998 to 2002 with a maximum of 67.5 % in 2001. Insect prey taken included coleoptera Scaurus sp. (E = 0.90) and the orthopterans Pamphagus elephas (E = 0.74) and Eyprepocnemis plorans (E = 0.09). At the species level, the hybrid sparrow ( Passer domesticus x Passer hispaniolensis) was the commonest taken prey (47.2 %) and it had the highest density among the recorded birds. This prey species was the most prefered among the birds recorded (E = 0.35).