Mammal Watching Forum

My 6 day trip to Western sahara. I flew on the 20th October 2021. A straightforward flight, from Gatwick, via casablanca to dakhla. The only issue being landing in casablanca to find that our flight home had even cancelled due to covid rules being suddenly changed by the Moroccan government. Not exactly ideal. Post covid, dakhlas windsurfing Community is alive […]

1. True’s beaked whales from the Southern Hemisphere split as a new species, Mesoplodon eueu. 2. When pygmy marmosets got split, it was unclear which of the two species should keep the old name because it was unknown which one was represented by the original holotype. Now we know that the northern species should be called Cebuella pygmaea and the […]

Hi Everyone! I’ve been entertaining this question in my own head, and was wondering what everyone else thinks: So back when I started mammal watching (2007ish), seeing a list of 20-30 mammals anywhere was spectacular, and 50 was almost unimaginable. But obviously, with today’s knowledge, increasing accessibility to ecosystems at night (in most countries), improving guiding services and of course […]

A few weeks ago a Walrus entered the Netherlands on the island: “Schiermonnikoog”, went further to Terschelling” and “Harlingen” after a few days. That’s were it caught my attention, i was hoping to get the possibility to go when i was free from work. Everytime i got a day off from work the walrus wasn’t seen for a couple of […]

Here’s another excellent Romania report from Sakertours. European Mink Special, 2021: Sakertours, 5 days & 30+ species including Romanian Hamster, European Mink and Greater Noctules. Jon

Everything from the Neotropics today. 1. A cool open-access paper describing a new species Histiotus mochica from the coastal desert of northern Peru. Although currently known from just two specimens, it is apparently portrayed in ancient Moche art so probably isn’t that rare. I saw one in Cerros de Amotape NP back in 1995 and never could ID since there […]

I saw that Konstantin Yordanov had posted a link on Facebook to Alan Root’s epic film about the wildlife of the Congo, so decided to share it here. I’ve been wanting to see this film for a long time, as it has great footage of lots of rare Congolese species including the Okapi, Aquatic genet, Giant otter shrew and the […]

Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Stithr The new episode of the mammalwatching podcast has Charles Foley and me interviewing Russ Mittermeier world famous author, mammalogist, conservationist and primate watcher. Russ takes us on a trip from a Tarzan-loving kid, watching monkeys at the Bronx Zoo to a Tarzan-loving scientist, discovering new species of primates in the jungles of the […]

When spotting animals at night it can be hard to hold the flashlight and hold the camera at the same time. Yapok catcher and PhD candidate Jose Gabriel Martinez Fonseca has an idea for a new way to mount a small torch parallel to a camera lens. The link to the instructions (which includes a sample sequence of Arizona shots) […]

After having looked for mammals in Central and Southeast Europe I urgently needed a diversion … and went mammal watching in the north. 😉 Here is my report: http://www.wilddocu.de/mammal-encounters-in-sweden/

Here’s Cheryl Antonucci’s latest report. She saw annoyingly many mammals (i.e she saw more than I did). Paraguay, 2021: Cheryl Antonuccci, 10 days and 31 species including Conover’s Tuco-tuco, Greater & Lesser Hairy Armadillos, Lesser Grison, Jaguarundi and Geoffroy’s Cat. jon

I thought it best to have a separate post hightlighting the Indianapolis Prize Emerging Conservation Award, so it would be easier for people to search for on the website. All details can be found here. The Award will be given every two years and comes with a $50,000 prize to be used for their conservation work. Applications can be submitted […]

In the latest podcast episode, Jon Hall and I interview Dr. Lisa Dabek about her incredible 25 year study of the Matschie’s tree-kangaroo in the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. She describes the difficulties of finding tree-kangaroos and how they’ve worked with the local communities to set up highly successful hunting free zones, where mammal populations are flourishing. Jon and […]

For many years Uganda had been fairly high on my list of places to visit, but never quite high enough for me to start thinking seriously about a trip. I’d heard only good things about the Pearl of Africa, but didn’t think I would see many new mammals there. My thinking changed in early 2021 when Tomer Ben-Yehuda and Alex […]

A new paper in African Journal of Ecology. Sounds like an unparalleled mammalwatching experience.

János Oláh has just submitted a great report on watching mammals in Romania (2021-09). Take this as a supplement to find out how to get close to Rupicapra rupicapra carpatica, the biggest subspecies of the Alpine Chamois. http://www.wilddocu.de/looking-for-carpathian-chamois-in-romania/

Hi there, I’m planning to get a trail camera to put in my backyard. There has been a fox visiting for a while and the kids want to see it. We are also curious what else comes by at night. There are quite a few choices in the $100 range on Amazon. Very hard to pick… I wonder if anyone […]

Are Przewalski’s Horses truly a wild species, or just an escaped ancient breed? Here a recent research that (maybe) demonstrates the second hypothesis. Like Mouflon sheep in Mediterranean region, P Horses in Central Asia seem to descend from a domesticated stock, and there are no more truly wild horses left.   The abstract: https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.aao3297

Hi mammal watchers, I wonder if anyone has information about places good for mammal watching i southern Italy (Naples and south), northern Greece ( Thessaloniki and Lake Kerkini area) and North Macedonia? I have not find many trip reports on these areas online. We will be there between 9 – 23 October and in Italy especially looking for Calabrian Black […]

After Austria  and Slowakia here comes my third mammal watching trip report concerning my travels to Eastern Europe in 2021: Hungary