Beyond the misty slopes and green valleys that make Dhofar special during the Khareef season a group of people who work outside and track animals are learning about the ways of the carnivores in southern Oman.
While visitors come to see the rainy season landscape, people who care about protecting nature are using the changes in plants, water and animals to collect important information about wildlife.
This work connects the pictures people take of nature with the science that helps understand animals. It gives knowledge about creatures that live in the high lonely mountains of the country.
Among the prominent figures driving this initiative is Omani wildlife researcher and tracker Mohammed bin Al Bahr al Rawas.
Over years of intensive field studies, Al Rawas has tracked a comprehensive roster of native fauna, including the critically endangered Arabian leopard, Arabian lynx (caracal), striped hyena, Arabian wolf, Blanford’s fox, honey badger, and Nubian ibex.
His field methods rely heavily on reading subtle environmental indicators—such as paw prints, scat, territorial markings, and feeding remnants—rather than relying solely on chance visual sightings.
The fieldwork requires high patience and precise risk management across treacherous topography, where a single successful documentation effort can take months of tracking.
Among Al Rawas’s notable scientific contributions is a four-month ecological study in Jabal Samhan that provided rare photographic confirmation of a Black Eagle nesting site.
His research and visual documentation have also featured in international natural history broadcasts for networks including National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, and the BBC.
Current tracking efforts in western Dhofar are focusing on continuous monitoring projects targeting the striped hyena, Arabian lynx, and Arabian leopard.
Environmental experts emphasize that transforming wildlife tracking into structured field data is essential for formulating targeted conservation policies across Oman’s unique southern ecosystems. Oman Daily Report
