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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 3250023" data-attributes="member: 12449">With all the seawatching done, the rest of my trip reverted back to a focus on mammals, two species in particular still on my hit list. Before departing for these however, I added yet one more species in the form of two Wood Mice on Cap Rhir, courtesy of my small mammal traps -  not a species I was particularly expecting in Morocco.So leaving the coast, inland we went and up went the temperatures, kilometres rolling by, temperatures soaring! Destination was the Tizi-n-Test pass, a rugged mountain road cutting through the Atlas Mountains south-west of Marrakesh. Any hopes of the higher altitude bringing cooler conditions were dashed as we began to ascent - the early afternoon hitting a nifty 43 C as we navigated the multiple hairpins to begin the climb. Cuvier's Gazelle occurs in these arid foothills, but at the best of times it is exceptionally elusive, so I didn't do much more than pause and scan as I passed, a few Rock Buntings and Black Wheatears the only things seen of any note, though I added Red-rumped Swallow, European Bee-eater and Red-billed Chough as I continued on my way. The main stop in this region was at a lightly forested slope 8km beyond the summit - here, in a massive fenced enclosure that basically engulfs an entire mountain, a small population of Barbary Sheep have been reintroduced.Sitting atop a rock pinnacle and scanning the high grass patches way above the tree line, it soon became apparent that this was not going to bear fruit - any self-respecting sheep was not going to be out in the open in the blazing sun. So began a far harder task, scoping the expanses of pine hoping to spot an animal sheltering underneath. Seeing absolutely nothing for close on an hour, I was on the point of giving up when suddenly a slight  movement on a distant half-hidden scree revealed a animal strutting from the shade of one tree to the next! Ah success, albeit definitely needing the telescope, one Barbary Sheep!Well, I was quite happy with that, so decided to continue. One kilometre further, a mere couple of hundred metres from the road and quite plain to see, a group of five Barbary Sheep sheltered under another pine. Hmmph, I had just sat under the baking sun for far too long trying to find them and now here they were right beside the road! Anyhow, nice views were had of this little herd, nicely posing for photographs ...until that is they decided I was too close and off they went, charging off up the mountain.It was now late afternoon, I had a fair way to drive, so on we went. Five Barbary Squirrels were seen on route and then, via umpteen meanders through the mountains, finally we reached Marrakesh several hours later. A couple of hours more, having driven across the flat plains north-east of Marrakesh, I reached my destination for the night, one Algerian Hedgehog seen on the road just before. Camped in the forest, hopefully dawn would bring one more fine mammal.</blockquote>

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