MAMMAL DISTRIBUTIONS IN THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN - THE ROLE OF HUMANINTERVENTION

The natural distribution of the 17 non-flying mammal species occurring wild in both the Maghreb (north-west Africa) and Iberia (south-west E urope) is considered. It is concluded that only four species - Red Fox Vulpes vulpes, Wild Boar Sus scrofa, Wild Cat Felis silvestris and Ot ter Lutra lutra - are native to both regions, while another three - Re d Deer Cervus elaphus, Brown Bear Ursus arctos and Aurochs Bos primige nius - were native to North Africa until the mid-Holocene but have pro bably died out naturally. Algerian Hedgehog Atelerix algirus, Barbary Ape Macaca sylvanus, Genet Genetta genetta and Egyptian Mongoose Herpe stes ichneumon are widely accepted as introductions to Europe from Nor th Africa. The remaining six species, and Red Deer now found in Africa , were also probably introduced - Rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, Weasel Mustela nivalis, Wood Mouse Apodemus sylvaticus and Lesser White-toot hed Shrew Crocidura russula from Europe to Africa; Algerian Mouse Mus spretus from Africa to Europe; Savi's Pygmy Shrew Suncus etruscus perh aps from the eastern Mediterranean to both Iberia and the Maghreb. The re are two Maghrebi species which, although not found in Europe, are m ore closely related to Palaearctic than to Afrotropical species: Garde n Dormouse Eliomys melanurus, probably native to north-west Africa, al though possible augmentation of the natural population cannot be ruled out, and Whitaker's Shrew Crocidura whitakeri, a North African endemi c. Removal of so many species of European provenance from the list of mammals native to northwest Africa should not be considered to weaken its position as part of the Palaearctic zoogeographical region. Bats a nd other, non-mammalian, taxa illustrate the clear faunal relationship between the Maghreb and south-west Europe, whilst emphasizing its dis tinction from subsaharan Africa.