Field Guide to the Mammals of the Middle East: Second Edition [Hardcover]

‘Field Guide to the Mammals of the Middle East’ (released 2015) is an accessible text suitable for graduate students and professionals in the fields of mammal biology, conservation biology, and ecology, as well as nature conservation practitioners and mammal specialists.

The second edition of the Book is now available with a special hard cover and some additions and corrections to the content and the pictures of the book.

Mammals of the Middle East command a high level of public attention, reflected in specific legislation for their protection and management in many countries. They also present particular challenges to ecologists and conservation biologists. They are mostly difficult to observe, there are often perceived conflicts between mammals and people, and furthermore several species are now close to extinction.

mammal guide sheet 1

Written by Assad Adel Serhal and Saeed Abdulla Alkhuzai. This guide cover all 200 terrestrial and marine mammals recorded in the Middle East, particularly in Arabic-speaking countries. To reach a wider audience, the text is both in Arabic and English. This guide is not limited to only being the first of its kind in form, content, its scientific approach and coverage of all mammals of the region, but it is also characterized by the ease and clarity of its information and the ability to identify the animals in the wilderness from their physical description, measurements, favourite habitat, behaviour, breeding, food, etc. . It also includes coloured plates and illustrations of each of these species, races, skulls and footprint when it is available.

One of the major challenges that we faced during our work on this guide was how to access the best drawings for the mammals of the Middle East at the international level. Fortunately, we have managed to receive the permission to use more than 500 coloured illustrations of all these animals, including their adult forms, adolescent forms baby forms, and different genders, as well as renderings of skeletons, tracks and excrement to make their identification in their natural habitat.

mammal guide sheet 3

 

 

 

mammal guide sheet 2

This guide focuses on 200 species of terrestrial and marine mammals whose existence is confirmed in Arabic-speaking countries in the region known as the Middle East, where land is surrounded by many bodies of water, including the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Gulf. We also tried to cover all habitats including sea, coast, forest, mountains, valleys, desert and marshes.

For descriptions, the measurements of body and tail length were indicated in centimeters (cm), as shown in each figure and body weight in kilograms (kg), in addition to colours of fur and its variation. We also tried to compare species present in the region or with those occurring in adjacent regions like South Europe and the Eastern side of the Arabian Gulf.

Issues related to behaviour indicated are time of activity, seasonality, places the species inhabit and ability to dig, climb, swim, etc. The breeding section includes maturity, breeding season, gestation period, number of babies and lifespan. For feeding, the main type of diet is highlighted in the text.

As conservation and protection is an essential message here, we depended on the IUCN Red Data List for threatened species. Accordingly, the status of each mammal is considered in relation to what is indicated by the categories of the IUCN based on the time this book was published.