Hedgehog and more

This adorable little critter is called Emiechinus auritus, or long-eared hedgehog. It was caught by some Kuwaiti border police personnel, and I "adopted" it for a day so I could snap some pictures of it in daylight before releasing it at night. In the end I was glad I kept it longer because it is quite friendly and several other soldiers got to hold it, play with it, get their picture taken with it and make up nicknames for it. I released the hedgehog in an anti-tank ditch the following night, but it was attracted by the lights of our position so about an hour later we found it again eating Anthia beetles in the middle of the road. Eventually, we decided to drive out into a dark area of the desert and leave it there. This is definitely the neatest animal I have seen since the amphisbaenidae worm-lizard. This long-eared hedgehog is smaller than the ones I found dead or heard about from other people who have seen them before, and its spines are much softer too, so I think it must be a young one.



I can already hear the comments: "What? Another reptile?" Well, I had been trying to take a picture of one of the beautiful, blue-throated Trapelus persicus lizards for a while, but they are very fast. I finally got some pictures of one, but it happens to be an individual without any blue coloration! Is it a female, or an abnormal individual, or even a diferent species? I don't know, but I am guessing that it would be a female (a couple of synonyms are Trapelus blandfordi, and Agama blandfordi). If nothing else, researching these reptiles I've been seeing has made me realize just how many fascinating species roam this area. And I did ask about the desert monitor. According to the Kuwaitis I asked, monitors are not eaten (it is the Dhub lizard that is widely eaten), but many people kill them because they are considered to be aggressive and dangerous. The Kuwaitis also said that the monitors live in large numbers in small territories, which sounds strange considering that I have yet to see more than two in one place.



I have been seeing rather high numbers of larks lately and I took a few neat pictures, so my next blog post will probably be dedicated to the three most common species: desert bar-tailed, hoopoe, and crested larks. Besides for those, the birdlife is rather dull right now. I haven't even been seeing any shrikes lately.

Overall, Kuwait is still the boring place it usually is. One of the questions I always get from Kuwaiti soldiers is: "Do you like Iraq?" I guess I am expected to say no, but I immediately think of trees, rivers, lakes, orchards, and local people who don't live like spoiled kids. So I just give a diplomatic answer like: "It is pretty, but dangerous." The saddest thing is that Iraq really isn't pretty unless I compare it to Kuwait or some similarly blighted area (parking lots under construction, Superfund chemical dumping sites, etcetera). And while I am on the topic of locals: a while ago I wrote about a cleric who issued a ridiculous fatwa about women having to breastfeed their male co-workers. A similar, but more serious, issue has been at the forefront of Kuwaiti politics lately: The Assembly recently passed an amendment to labor law, saying that women may no longer work from 8PM to 7AM. There are exceptions for health workers (there just wouldn't be anymore nightshift nurses otherwise), the two female ministers (who probably inserted the language themselves), and select people who might be fortunate enough to obtain government permission. As far as I know, the amendment has not yet been approved by the Emir.