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NRLD - 329882 | Mellivora capensis

Assessment ID
329882
Taxon name
Mellivora capensis
(Schreber, 1776)
Uploaded by
National Red List Database
Taxonomic information
Scientific name
Mellivora capensis
(Schreber, 1776)
Assessed taxon level
Species
Higher level taxonomic groupings
Vertebrates
Mammals
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
chordata
Class
mammalia
Order
carnivora
Family
mustelidae
Genus
Mellivora
Species
capensis
Species authority
(Schreber, 1776)
Location and scope
Specific locality or subnational name or regional name
United Arab Emirates (the)
Scope (of the Assessment)
National
Countries included within the scope of the assessment
United Arab Emirates (the)
Country ISO code(s)
ARE
Does the assessment cover a marine EEZ area(s)?
Not_assigned
Conservation Status
Assessed as
Data deficient
Abbreviated status
DD
Criteria system used
IUCN

(see Assessment details)

Assessment rationale/justification
The population status and distribution of the Honey Badger in the UAE is uncertain. It is known from a small number of historical and recent records from southern and western Abu Dhabi Emirate and recent sightings from low relief areas within the Hajar Mountains. It is thus assessed as Data Deficient. The species may have a marginal occurrence in the UAE, with a global range that extends from northwestern Africa to Central Asia. No regional adjustment is made to the Data Deficient assessment.
Assessment details
Year assessed
2018
Assessors/contributors/reviewers listed
UAE National Red List Workshop
Criteria system used
IUCN
Reference for methods given
IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1, Second edition. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. iv + 32pp pp. And IUCN. 2012. Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels: Version 4.0. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. iii + 41pp.
Further information
Endemism (according to assessment)
Endemic to region
Not assigned
Taxon distribution as listed in assessment
The status and distribution of the Honey Badger in the UAE is uncertain. Tracks were reported in the late 1940s between Liwa and the Sabkha Matti (Thesiger 1949). There have been two more recent reports of tracks: in 1991 between Liwa and Umm al Zummoul and 1992 in the Baynoonah area (Duckworth 1996, Drew and Tourenq 2005, Aspinall et al. 2005). The first definitive record in the UAE was in August 2005, when three specimens, two live and one dead, were recorded near Ruwais in western Abu Dhabi (Aspinall et al. 2005). This record appears to have been overlooked by Mallon and Budd (2011) and others. Tracks were seen in 2010 in Baynoonah, western Abu Dhabi. There are two reports from the Northern Emirates (G. Feulner, pers. comm. 2018): In the late 1990s or early 2000s, Jaap Wensvoort, then manager of a reserve north-east of Hatta, reported a sighting from an elevated viewpoint, of a 'waddling, black-and-white animal crossing the plain below'. The only reasonable candidate seems to be the Honey Badger. In 2016, a Dubai naturalist and photographer observed a Honey Badger feeding not long after dark beside the trash area at an informal picnic site above a dam on the western mountain front. The Honey Badger has an extensive global range in most of sub-Saharan Africa from South Africa north to southern Morocco and southwestern Algeria, and through Arabia, Iran and western Asia and Central Asia (Do Linh San et al. 2016).
Is there a map available in assessment?
Yes
Habitat and systems
Ecological system type
Terrestrial
Not_assigned
Freshwater
Not_assigned
Marine
Not_assigned
Habitat
Habitat details as listed in assessment
Baynoonah, where the specimens were recorded, is in open desert. In the Northern Emirates, two of three known reports are associated with human activity. No other information on the ecology of the species in UAE is available. Honey Badgers occur in a wide range of habitats in Arabia, including sand and gravel plains, wadis, mountains up to 2,200 m (Harrison and Bates 1991, Mallon and Budd 2011) but in UAE they have only been confirmed from the desert
Threats and conservation measures listed
Threats listed in assessment
Subject to generalised persecution of carnivores. No information specific to UAE is available.
History
Whilst Hornby (1996) listed this species as Critically Endangered, at that time the species' occurrence in the UAE was unconfirmed as only tracks had been reported in the 1940s and once in 1996. Since that time there has been a record of three specimens which confirms its presence, but nothing more is known. The backcasted 1996 assessment for this species is, therefore, Data Deficient.
Publication
Mallon, D., Hilton-Taylor, C., Allen, D., & Harding, K. (2019). UAE National Red List of Mammals: Marine and Terrestrial. A report to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, United Arab Emirates (p. 41). IUCN Global Species Programme. https://bit.ly/2RdZCQR