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thus distinguishing: a bushy or sparsely haired tail; spots or stripes;
particularly long or short ears? Make a note of the animal’s general
colour and any distinct markings.
Also make a note of behavioural traits or peculiarities. Was the
animal in a large group or alone? Was it in a tree? Did it enter a
burrow? Once you have sufficient information you can consult this
guide and try to establish the species.
A useful indicator of an animal’s presence in an area is its spoor,
or tracks – most easily seen in sand or mud – or its droppings. Fresh
tracks might give you a clue as to what the animal was doing and
might even lead to a glimpse of a more secretive species.CONSERVATION
The actions of humans in North Africa and the Middle East, as in
most other parts of the world, have resulted in extinctions, declines
in populations, and destruction and modification of habitats. During
the colonial era hunting on a large scale began. The Second World War
left a legacy of an abundance of weapons, and versatile Jeeps became
available: the result was a considerable slaughter of game animals.
Even before this, hunting was taking its toll. Consider the princes and
grandees of Persia (now Iran), in the late 19th century. One case is
sufficient to explain the scale of the slaughter. At the age of 14, a Qajar
prince, Zell-e Soltan, and his entourage went on a hunting expedition
to the Mian Kaleh Peninsula, which extends into the Caspian Sea. The
peninsula covers over 60,000 ha and was rich in game species. Among
their bag were 150 Red Deer stags, 18 Leopards and 35 Tigers.
The Tiger is now extinct in the region, but just over 100 years ago
it roamed from eastern Turkey and across all of northern Iran. This
distinct race, the Caspian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata), disappeared
from Turkey but continued to survive in Iran until, it was claimed, the
last of these magnificent cats was shot in 1953 in what is today the
Golestan National Park to the east of the Caspian Sea. In 1958 there
was a reliable sighting of a Tiger in this same area.
Although hunting played some role in the demise of the Tiger and
the Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica), it came mostly from the loss
of their forest and woodland habitat and the decline of their prey
animals. Lions lived in North Africa and parts of the Middle East up
to the middle of the 19th century. They were wiped out in Palestine
during the Crusades, but survived in eastern Turkey until about 1870.
In Iran they occurred across the south, from the Zagros Mountains to
Baluchestan, with the last reliable sighting made in 1942 in the south-
west 65 km from the town of Dezful. Lions still occurred in the great
marshes at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, Iraq,
in the mid-1940s. The only surviving Asiatic Lions now live outside
the region in the Gir Forest of western India. In North Africa, lions
had gone from the Moroccan coast by the mid-1800s, although it is
believed that some survived in the high Atlas until the mid-1940s.
It was not only the big cats that suffered. At least seven species of
antelope were driven to total or regional extinction. The Red Gazelle
(Gazella rufina) of North Africa (Algeria) is known from just three
museum specimens collected in the 19th century. The Arabian Gazelle
(Gazella arabica) is known from a single museum specimen said to haveMammals of North Africa pp 1-11.indd 8 26/11/2015 13: