Arabian Tahr can drink seawater: Study

Muscat: A field study proved that the Arabian Tahr can drink from seawater, as a rare case.

A research team from the Environment Conservation Office at the Environment Authority (EA) used camera traps to monitor the Arabian Tahr on three different occasions.

Sayyid Taimur bin Abdullah al Said, an environmental specialist at the Environment Authority, said: “The drinking of seawater is a rare occurrence among wild mammals. We collected and analyzed camera trap data from the study site on a secluded area in Ras Abu Dawood in Muscat Governorate where fresh water is scarce with an average annual rainfall of 117.2 mm and mostly falls in winter. The Arabian ibex also known as Arabian tahr or Arabitragus jayakari, is one of the rare wildlife species of the Sultanate of Oman. It is a small mountain goat belonging to the bovid family and lives in the Al Hajar Mountains in the Arabian Peninsula (from Musandam Governorate to Ras Al Hadd in South Al Sharqiyah Governorate), the only habitat of the Arabian ibex in the world.”

The Arabian tuhr lives in very steep and rugged habitats at altitudes ranging between 400 and 1,200 metres according to previous studies carried out by the Environment Conservation Office, he said noting that the study area does not only contain the Arabian ibex, but also other mammals such as: the Arabian gazelle, the Arabian wolf, the lynx, the wild cat, the red fox, and the mountain fox.

The study proved the ability of the Arabian ibex to drink from seawater due to the scarcity of freshwater in the Ras Abu Daood area. Besides, the study corroborated the hypothesis that this species uses seawater as a nutritional supplement to make up for lack of sodium and minerals. The Arabian ibex was monitored by two cameras, one of them monitored the male ibex and the other monitored the female and young ibex. The Arabian ibex drank seawater for only 2-3 seconds from large pools on the rocky shore between high and low tide but not directly from sea, he said. — ONA