Arab News‘s weekly ‘Review’ has a feature on Saudi efforts to preserve (and restore) its native wildlife. Most interesting to me was the discussion of the role of the spiny-tailed lizard (dhub) in the ecology of the Saudi deserts. The lizard, up to about two feet in length, has been an emergency food reserve for Bedouins. Now, it is being severely reduced in numbers by hunters who want to partake of it as part of their traditional values. [Some 20 years ago, while camping in the desert near Khafji, on the Kuwait border, our Bedouin hosts offered us dhub tail. And yes, it tastes like chicken.] The article is an interesting one.

Lunching With Wolves
Roger Harrison | Arab News

STILL as death and fangs gleaming in the crepuscular evening light, the beige reticulated predator lay with seemingly geological patience motionless against the ground.

Stepping smartly over the lifeless eight-centimeter body-length camel spider (not a true arachnid but a member of the order solifugae), researcher Moayyad Shersha, a field research assistant, gently lifted a cage with a slightly dazed desert fox (Vulpus ruepelli) into the truck. We were ready to head out to the release point, which in this case was where the animal was captured.

“We get lots of those running about here,” he said nodding at the spider. “Annoying at night when you sleep out.”

Right; sharp intake of breath and point noted.

At this point it is important to set the right tone. As is the way with scientists who spend their lives researching and recording species in their care they like to keep the taxonomy of their beasts accurate even if the effect of their personal image disturbs the occasional less knowledgeable visitor. Their familiarity with the Latin names — and the creatures themselves — comes with practice. To acknowledge their professionalism the correct taxonomy will be used to introduce species — thence forward the more familiar identification.
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