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New Book on Arabian Mammals
Since the dawn of the oil age on the ArabianPeninsula, biologists have trekked over the sands, through the wadibeds, and up steep mountain trails looking for the diversity ofplants and animals that had been virtually unknown before. To besure, there was plenty of folklore on the local fauna, but it wouldtake somewhat fanatic collectors going out in the midday sun to placethe knowledge of Arabia's animal heritage on a scientific footing. Unfortunately, most of the information collected thus far has beendifficult to locate.
As a graduate student trying to betterunderstand the range of animals in Yemen, where I first carried outethnographic fieldwork about 15 years ago, I remember the greatsatisfaction at finding the original three volumes of David L.Harrison's comprehensive study of the mammals of Arabia; these werepublished between 1964 and 1972. Of course, much has been added tothe sum of knowledge in the past two decades. Thus, it is with evengreater satisfaction that I have now come across a revision of thesevolumes by Harrison and Paul J. J. Bates. This is The Mammals ofArabia, published in 1991 by the Harrison Zoological Museum,Bowerwood House, St. Botolphs Rd., Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 3AQ, England(ISBN 0 9517313 0 0).
First, a word about the authors. DavidHarrison, a physician by trade, has been a lifelong student ofmammals around the world. His introduction to the Middle East camein 1953, when he joined the RAF and served in Iraq. During the 1970she led the Fauna and Flora Survey of Jabal Akhdar in northern Oman. He recently received the Stamford Raffles Award from the ZoologicalSociety of London for his contributions in the field of mammalstudies. Dr. Bates has been the Scientific Assistant at the HarrisonZoological Museum since 1982. His doctoral thesis at LondonUniversity was on the zoogeography and taxonomy of African andAsiatic gerbils.
The present volume updates the informationin the three original volumes, especially regarding changes intaxonomic terminology. It is also condensed, with less measurementdata and less treatment of subspecies. The goal of the authors ispractical. They note: "The Arabian Peninsula is a vast region withhabitats of many types, including some of the most harsh and exactingon our planet. Much basic research still needs to be done on itsmammalian life, which is of unique interest, including Eurasian andAfrican elements as well as local endemic species. Successfulconservation of this fascinating fauna can only be achieved bydetailed scientific analysis of the component species and theirhabitat requirements. This book has been designed to assist inachieving this important and increasingly urgent objective." While Iwould not want to carry this hefty volume (some 354 large formatpages) around in a backpack, it does indeed provide a ready sourcefor practical field study.
The volume is conveniently organized andeasy to use with a glossary of technical terms, gazetteer with mapcoordinates, and indices of both common and scientific names. Virtually every species is illustrated and distribution maps areprovided. In addition, the authors give a brief key to the distinctfeatures of Arabian specimens for the major species. While the focusof the study is Oman and Saudi Arabia, specimens are included fromaround the peninsula, including Yemen.
Among the species noted for Yemen are thefollowing: African Small-spotted Genet, Arabian White-toothed shrew,Asiatic jackel, various bats, Cape hare, Caracal Lynx, Ethiopianhedgehog, Gazelle, gerbils, Hamadryas baboon, Honey badger, Houseshrew, Hyrax, Ibex, Indian Crested Porcupine, Leopard, Lesser Jerboa,Lesser Kudu, Lesser White-toothed shrew, various mice and rats, Redfox, Sand cat, Savi's Pygmy shrew, Striped Hyaena, White-tailedmongoose, Wild cat, and wolf.
One of the most interesting sections of thetext, although it is also one of the shortest, is that covering thebaboon (Papio hamadryas). The Arabian specimens, fromsoutheastern Saudi Arabia and Yemen, are generally denoted assubspecies arabicus and appear to be smaller than the East Africanvarieties. While there has been some study of baboons from the 'Asirregion of Saudi Arabia, there has been no scientific fieldinvestigation of those in Yemen. This will hopefully be rectifiedsoon, since Clifford Jolly (NYU) and Jane Phillips-Conroy (WashingtonUniversity in St. Louis) have received an AIYS grant to conduct apreliminary field study of baboons in Yemen this coming year. My ownlimited observations of several small foraging bands of baboons inJabal Bura' in 1989 indicates that the Yemeni varieties are indeed onthe small side. They are also somewhat fearless, as several raidedthe banana plantation alongside the wadi road early in the morning onone of the nights we slept there. I question the comment in thetext (p. 110) that baboons have recently become abundant in thefoothills of Yemen. While it is true that natural predators, such asthe leopard, have been greatly reduced; I should think that humanswith their prolific stock of rifles have more than compensated forthis. Philby wrote in 1938 that there were "enormous troops ofbaboons, which move about the mountains in military formation" in theSaudi area. Similarly, Hoogstraal mentioned large troops of baboonsin the Yemeni highlands when he visited in the 1950s. In 1979 I sawa troop of about 35-40 individuals on the rugged and somewhat barrenslopes west of Husn al-'Arus, about 3000 meters above sea level. Thefarmers in nearby al-Ahjur said they used to be quite abundant andwere major pests of crops, but that they were rarely encountered inthe wadi anymore. It is my impression that the population of baboonshas in fact been decreasing, although this will need field study andanalysis of existing information in order to get a clearerpicture.
If you are at all connected with auniversity library, pass the information on this volume to yourlibrarian. Any one who is serious about studying the fauna ofArabia must have this volume on his or her bookshelf. I hope thatsimilar volumes will appear in the future on other animal species,but this is a good start and will be a standard reference for yearsto come.