Mammals |
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The most common mammals in Ras Al Khaimah are camels, goats and feral donkeys. However, there are also wild mammals that choose desert or mountains as their habitat. They often go unseen, as many of them are nocturnal. Rodents are the largest group of mammals and they include jerboas, cheesmains, and a few species of gerbils and jirds.
Other common animals are foxes (the Arabian red, Blandford’s, sand fox), bats,haresor wildcats (the Gordon’s wildcat and the sand cat). The Arabian sand gazelle and the Mountain Gazelles, although very rare, sometimes can be spotted in the wild.
Once, this area was also a sanctuary for a variety of other mammals, for example leopards, wolves, striped hyenas, thars and caracals. Unfortunately, all of these are either now extinct in the UAE, or on the brink of extinction due to intense hunting and the spread of human settlements. What is more, the Gordon’s wildcat faces another danger, which probably will lead to its extinction. This wildcat often interbreeds with the domestic cat, therefore, a pure breed is almost impossible to find.
Conservation efforts are undertaken to preserve the wildlife of the UAE, an example of them is reintroduction of the Arabian oryx into its natural environment. Hopefully the results of other projects can be seen in the future. |
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