Current view: Text account
Site description (1994 baseline):
Site location and context
A tract of elevated limestone highlands, rising abruptly as an escarpment from the coastal plain and sloping more gently towards the interior plains, everywhere deeply incised by tortuous canyons and ravines, up to 1,000 m deep and often very steep or vertical. Elevations range from sea-level up to c.1,800 m. The mountain lies parallel to the south-west monsoon winds of summer, and the vegetation does not benefit as much from their moisture as the mountains of Jabal al Qara and Jabal al Qamar to the west. The vegetation is mostly a sparse, low shrub layer typified by
Euphorbia balsamifera, with grass and occasional trees or bushes of
Acacia,
Commiphora,
Boswellia,
Boscia and
Dracaena. This is unusually wild and uninhabited country, with no settlements and few motorable tracks: most of the area is impassable by road and is relatively little used by pastoralists (otherwise the main land-use in the region). There are at least two antiquity sites.
See box for key species. A very important natural wildlife refuge. It is mostly unexplored due to the extreme difficulty of access.
Non-bird biodiversity: Flora: there is a high degree of endemism. Mammals: the major Omani populations of Panthera pardus (rare) and Capra nubiana (I) are here. Vulpes cana (K), Gazella gazella (V) and possibly Canis lupus (V) also occur.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
The area is a proposed National Nature Reserve.
Information compiled by M. I. Evans.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Jabal Samhan (Oman). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/jabal-samhan-iba-oman on 23/12/2024.
