Iraqi Flora and Fauna — Small

I know it has been a while since I posted a new entry. My apologies for the delay. This is the first of what I hope is at least a two part post. I am trying to capture an image of all the fauna I see running around.
As I become more familiar with my location, I see more and more life teeming all around. Although I don’t want to get particularly close to some of it, it’s fascinating to watch.

As you can see, this isn’t living fauna, per se, but it’s fitting for the base. 🙂 This work of art was created my one of the craftsmen here.

In the desert, one doesn’t normally expect to find a koi pond. However, here the brine water (the by-product of water purification) has to go somewhere. It creates a little lake and the operators have discovered koi enjoy the water.

This predator is adept at digging beneath the sand. In fact, as a result it is named the Sand Boa. In the hot desert sun, the sand provides needed relief for this reptile. It often buries itself and only exposes its head, waiting for a small rodent to scurry by. Like all boas, it uses constriction to subdue its prey.

In fact, this cute, little guy could end up being dinner for the sand boa.

The Praying Mantis.

This is an example of fauna that I don’t want to get too close to. Unfortunately, he chose to get close to me this week. In my room here, I have 5 glue covered white boards on the floor. They are intended to catch rodents, but as you can see here, it also catches other little critters. This particular scorpion got stuck to the one that is right next to my bed… Fortunately, he chose to traverse the board, instead of my bed. If you’re interested in this particular species, its scientific name is Androctonus crassicauda. I originally thought he was only a “medium dangerous” species, but just got an email from a scorpion expert correcting me and said that this little guy is “bad boy #1” and is perhaps the most deadly scorpion in the region. Nice, huh?

Here’s another image of him with his pincers open.

As an aside, I also discovered a small (relatively) harmless scorpion in my office as well. So, they are rather common here. For those of you who live in the desert, it’s no big deal, but this is my first time seeing a number of them in a short period of time. The scorpion below is, Mesobuthus eupeus. Supposedly, its sting is painful, but not as serious as the one above.

Then, to finish the fauna section, with a friendlier animal.

The last and only image of flora from the area is this flower. It bloomed for about 3 weeks, then disappeared.

Well, that sums up the small flora and fauna from my area here. Hopefully, I will be able to add another post with more plants and animals soon.
So, until the next post.
–Jim