Endangered
Arabian tahr
Arabitragus jayakari
Arabian tahr is a mammal in the family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla) — Arabitragus jayakari, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
Their coats consist of a long, reddish-brown hair, with a dark stripe running down the back.
It is the smallest species of tahr.
Range and habitat
The Arabian tahr lives on steep rocky slopes of the Hajar Mountains in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, at altitudes up to 1,800 m (5,900 ft) above sea level. It is also found in the area of Jebel Hafeet. The Arabian tahr is a tahr native to eastern Arabia.
In April 2009, the Wadi Wurayah preserve in the Emirate of Fujairah was set aside by royal decree in the Emirates for the protection of the tahr.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
The Arabian tahr is endangered due to intense overgrazing, poaching, and habitat destruction. Habitat degradation is also another major threat, due to construction of roads, buildings, and mineral extraction. Also, poaching often occurs when the animals descend down from the mountains for water.
In 1973, efforts were planned to protect the Arabian tahr, and in 1975, a protection program was introduced in the Hajar Mountains. In 1980, a captive-breeding program was set up at the Omani Mammal Breeding Center to reintroduce captive-bred individuals back into the wild.
Arabian tahr is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Arabian tahr, Wikidata item Q24263188. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
