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Omar F Al-Sheikhly,Nadheer A Fazaa,Boris Kryštufek,Danijel Ivajnšič,Mukhtar K Haba,Ra’Ad H Al-Asady,Rainer Hutterer,Sayed B Mousavi,Javier Lazaro

doi:10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0635

Abstract

In the 1970s, the world knew the long-tailed nesokia Nesokia bunnii (Khajuria, 1981) (Rodentia, Muridae) from the Mesopotamian marshes of Garden of Eden in Southern Iraq. This distinct rodent was known from only five voucher specimens collected at the confluence of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in southern Iraq while its occurrence in Southwestern Iran had never been reported. In the 1990s, a large extent of its natural habitat was catastrophically desiccated and the animal was last seen in the 1970s. Since then, the status of this elusive rodent was shrouded in mystery. In 2007, an extraordinary photograph of a carcass of this species came to the light from Hawizeh Marsh which was interpreted as concrete evidence of the species’ persistence in the marshes of southern Iraq after the desiccation in the last century. In 2021, after more than 40 years, exclusive photographic records of living N. bunnii were obtained for the first time from Central Marshes in southern Iraq and from Edhe’am Marsh in southwestern Iran. The new distribution range is highlighted in this note. Furthermore, the first photographs of living N. bunnii are provided along with notes on its ecology and behavior.

Highlights

The long-tailed Nesokia Nesokia bunnii (Khajuria, 1981) (Rodentia, Muridae) is one of the morphologically elusive, rarest and enigmatic small Palaearctic mammals
The species is known from only five voucher specimens collected between March 1974 and January 1977 within a narrow perimeter of 30 km around Qurna, within the Mesopotamian marshes at the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers in Basra Province in southern Iraq (Khajuria, 1981; Kryštufek et al, 2017, 2020) (Tab. 1)
The species was originally described as a distinct genus Erythronesokia by Khajuria (1981) but was relegated in the early 1990s to the genus Nesokia where it is still maintained as N. bunnii

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The long-tailed Nesokia Nesokia bunnii (Khajuria, 1981) (Rodentia, Muridae) is one of the morphologically elusive, rarest and enigmatic small Palaearctic mammals. The species is known from only five voucher specimens collected between March 1974 and January 1977 within a narrow perimeter of 30 km around Qurna, within the Mesopotamian marshes at the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers in Basra Province in southern Iraq (Khajuria, 1981; Kryštufek et al, 2017, 2020) (Tab. 1). The photograph of the carcass had not been assigned to the species and was labeled as a “Rat” It clearly showed the distinctive morphological features of N. bunnii and was sufficient evidence of the species’ persistence in the Mesopotamian marshes of southern Iraq since the last animal had been captured near Bani Mansor in 1977 (Kryštufek et al, 2020). The first unsexed adult specimen was trapped by a local (see the acknowledgments) with a Harris Humane Rodent Cage Trap set on the ground in an old human settlement (old local house) on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River (30°57'50.88"N 47° 0'54.89"E) at the southernmost edge of the Central

First photographic records

Processed as NHRCM museum voucher