78. Caucasian Badger, Meles canescens Blanford, 1875

(IUCN Red List: LC)

Subspecies: Meles c. canescens Blanford, 1875

Distribution: Abundant; a wide range in almost all habitats across Syria, except for arid and semi-arid areas (Fig. 85).

Previous records: 20 km south of Tartous (Kock & Kinzelbach 1982); Al-Rafeed and Atheria (Shehab 2002); Slenfe mountains (Serra 2004); Palmyra, Idleb, Latakia, Deir ez-Zor, Salamiyah, and the vicinity of Damascus (Masseti 2009); Abu Qubays, Al-Furunlok, and Al-Lajat (Daoud & Khalil 2009a, b, 2018); Deir ez-Zor (Aidek 2010; Murdoch & Aidek 2012).

Recent records: Vicinity of as-Suwar (2007), Al-Thlithawat (Jabal Al Bishri), (2009) Mesiaf, Sheikh Bader, vicinity of Tartous, Al-Furunlok, Ain Albeida, Al-Kadmous, Salqeen, Al-Qumsiyeh, Ghandurah, Ain an-Nakheel, Husain Al-Bahr, Al-Sfeira, Al-Kneisat, Al- Ennabiyah, Al-Kiswah, Ya’four and Buiydhat Msallam, Salkhad, Shahba (2020–2021), ash-sheeha, ad-Derdariyeh, Jarablus, Rsass, Al-Gheidha (2022).

Remarks: The Middle East badger (Southwest Asian badger) Meles canescens was separated from its closest relative European badger Meles meles based on a combination of cranial and dental characters (Abramov & Puzachenko 2013).