New Trip Report: Morocco
Well just a few brief notes really, but some interesting info here.
Morocco, 2018: Michel Gervais’s notes of 6 weeks in Morocco with species including Aoudad, Cuvier’s Gazelle and a possible North African Elephant Shrew.
Jon
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Matt
I also just came back from Morocco and have little to add here except for 3 things:
1. Aoudad – or barbary sheep – are possible to see in other parts of the country as well. High in the Atlas Mountains you can see them from time to time and the one other place that comes to mind is Tazekka national park.
2. Speaking about Tazekka national park, boy oh boy! This place is beautiful and not only for the mammals. You can see the barbary sheep, (reintroduced) barbary stags, north african hedgehogs, porcupines, genets, african golden wolf and some less interesting species which are more easily found in Europe. Anyway, all these species are findable and more are present. Sadly the barbary sheep and barbary stags are in a special protect area (two seperate ones actually) and they take a fair bit of your time to find.
I don’t know which bats occur here, but it’s multiple species and the same goes for small mammals.
I spend 4 full days here and found most of the mentioned animals. There’s some problems though as there’s a lot of stray dogs roaming around in the area. I stayed at Auberge Admame and loved the place, but if you want a bit more luxury the national park hotel is fantastic.
3. Lastly souss massa. There’s 22 mammal species present here according to the billboard at the entrace of the NP. All the big species are reintroductions and are fenced – but nonehteless fantastic to see! During the evening and early morning you might find egyptian mongoose, cape hare, small mammals and bats. I’m up till today not sure which bats occur here except for the fact that escalera’s mouse-eared bats are present.
Regarding small mammals: north african elephant shrew, fat sand rat, barbary ground squirrel, north african hedgehog and etruscan shrew occur here.
To finish my bit about souss massa –> there’s also cuvier’s gazelle around but seeing them is (highly) unlikely.
To sum up everything: if you go to Morocco to find those beautiful sand cats, maybe think about staying at Souss Massa or Tazekka NP. Both are wonderful destinations with a nice diversity of mammals.