First record of the small Indian mongoose Urva auropunctata from Kuwait
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Omar F. Al-Sheikhly
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Abdulaziz H. Al-Yousif
Abstract
The small Indian mongoose Urva auropunctata is an Asian small carnivore, ranging from eastern Syria eastwards through Iraq and Iran to India, and southern China; it has been widely introduced worldwide for biological control. The species has never been reported in the mammal fauna of Kuwait; however, it was anticipated to occur around wetlands in the northeastern parts of the country. In April 2024, a small Indian mongoose was recorded at Al-Jahra Pool Nature Reserve in eastern Kuwait which confirms the first occurrence of this species in the country.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Faisal Hajwal, Dr. Mohammed Al-Shamlih, Omar Al-Shaheen, Humoud Al-Shaiji, Mohammed Khorshid, Mohammed Murad, and to all wildlife hobbyists in Kuwait for their support. This record is dedicated to Dr. Hussain Ali Al-Yousif-Kuwait. We thank Mohammed Khorshid for providing landscape photo of Al-Jahra Pool Nature Reserve and his permission to be use used in this account. We appreciate the editorial remarks and thoughtful comments provided by Prof. Geraldine Veron and an anonymous reviewer on this note.
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Research ethics: The Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was not obtained as our research did not involve human participants or human tissues and not imply trapping/collecting/examining of any wild animal species. No physical specimen of the species in subject was collected. Regardless, we stated that the species has been observed and ethically photographed by the 2nd author (Abdulaziz H. Al-Yousif) without any mean(s) of disturbance or interference with its natural habitat and behaviour. We followed the local guidelines for wildlife photography authorized for citizens by local environmental authorities at the study site (Al-Jahra Pool Nature Reserve, Kuwait). The species was identified based on visual direct observation of live animal in the wild supported by visual documentation (photos and video footages) provided as Supporting Materials in this submission. The species identification was based on analyzing the visual documentation (see above) following Harrison and Bates (1991) as indicated in the manuscript.
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Informed consent: Not applicable.
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Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission. A.H.A. and A.A. conducted the fieldwork; O.F.A. analysed the data. The first draft was written by O.F.A. and reviewed/commented on by all authors.
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Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.
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Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Data availability: We refer to Data Sharing Policy – Availability of data: the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article [and/or] its Supplementary Material.
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Supplementary Material
This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2025-0032).
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