Mohsen Chammem

• Dr
• Senior Researcher at Arid Regions Institute

Acknowledging that environmental factors and human activities shape wildlife patterns, we focus specifically on how plant density, species richness, and vegetation cover affect the occurrence and the population density of Psammomys obesus (sand rat) in the arid regions of Tunisia. Fieldwork was conducted from January to July 2024, surveying 105 sit...

This study focused on the Atlas gundi in the Matmata mountains of Tunisia and aims to evaluate the impact of human disturbances on its behavior and habitat preferences by comparing its use of natural and artificial habitats. We examined how these changes influence activity patterns and habitat selection, with an emphasis on the effects of human dis...

تكشف القائمة المرجعية لمنطقة الدراسة، التي تم إعدادها بدقة من خلال مزج الدراسات السابقة من المراجع، والزيارات الميدانية والملاحظات المباشرة للمؤلفين، وملاحظات المجتمعات المحلية، عن 36 نوعًا تمثل 29 عائلة. وتتناول القائمة المرجعية توزيعهم الجغرافي، وتسجل تواجدها في منطقة الدراسة. تتيح لنا هذه الصورة الشاملة فهم العلاقة الدقيقة بين كل نوع البيئات الت...

Over the past few decades, wild boar populations have surged globally, including in Tunisia, creating challenges that necessitate understanding the factors influencing their abundance and trends. Herein, we analyzed hunting statistics (number of seen and hunted animals during the hunting events) from 2008 to 2022 to examine the spatial pattern of w...

Reintroducing endangered species into their restored habitats is a significant aspect of conservation biology. The scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah), one of the most critically endangered antelopes worldwide, was reintroduced into several protected areas in Tunisia. Understanding their habitat requirements within micro-level ecosystems is crucial...

Examining the distribution patterns and spatiotemporal niche overlap of sympatric species is crucial for understanding core concepts in community ecology and for the effective management of multi-species habitats within shared landscapes. Using data from 26 camera-traps, recorded over two years (December 2020–November 2022), in Sidi Toui National P...

The annotated checklist, meticulously crafted through a blend of extensive literature review, the author's keen observations, and the wisdom of local communities, unveils the 36 species representing 29 families. The checklist delves into their geographical distribution , mapping their footprints across the zone. This comprehensive picture allows us...

Competition can be keen within and between closely related species but can be reduced when sympatric individuals differ in resource use. To determine how sympatric, closely related species coexist, we examined movement and activity of foraging individuals, developing detailed profiles for males of three species ( Acanthodactylus boskianus , A. dume...

2022): Habitat selection and foraging preference of the endangered addax (Addaxnasomaculatus) in a fenced wildlife reserve within its historic range: insights for supporting effective reintroduction, African Zoology, Reintroduction of species should be based on ecological knowledge, which is fundamental to enhancing the probability of success, but...

Estimating the realized and potential distribution of species has become a very active field of research with capacity to propose likely speciation mechanisms. Here, environmental variables and point locality data derived from several sources were used to examine the concordance between geographical distributions and environmental niches derived fr...

Disturbances caused by roads or urbanization can have a significant impact on wildlife populations. However, it remains unclear whether these human activities can be stressors for wild populations of reptiles. We analyzed and compared plasma corticosterone and fecal corticosterone metabolites in male and female spiny tailed lizards (Uromastyx acant...

Differential habitat use and intraguild competition are both thought to be important drivers of carnivore species distributions and abundance. To assess how habitat factors and interspecific interactions affect the structure of this widespread carnivore guild, we developed occupancy models for multi-scale habitat of the following three canids: Afri...

Rüppell’s fox, Vulpes rueppellii, is one of the four fox species occurring in North Africa. Its population status and ecology remains largely unknown. Here, we collected occurrence data from camera trapping and scat-collection based mitochondrial control region sequencing to assess the distribution range and status of the species across potential h...

Desert locust Schistocerca gregaria is one of the most destructive insect in the worldsince the old times. Previous work reported that swarms of the 2004 invasion of South Tunisia contained 5% of locusts in the solitary phase. These observations suggest that Tunisian desert could be a natural habitat for the solitary phase of S. gregaria, which had...

Desert locust Schistocerca gregaria is one of the most destructive insect in the worldsince the old times. Previous work reported that swarms of the 2004 invasion of South Tunisia contained 5% of locusts in the solitary phase. These observations suggest that Tunisian desert could be a natural habitat for the solitary phase of S. gregaria, which had...

In this study, we investigated the habitat, the daily activity and the trophic niche overlap of three carnivores found in southern Tunisia, namely the fennec fox (Vulpes zerda), the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and the African golden wolf (Canis anthus) over seasons. To achieve this goal, we surveyed 300-meter transects in Sidi Toui National Park (N=29)...

In Africa, the Cape hare (Lepus capensis) population is under threat from multiple stresses. For its efficient conservation planning, it is crucial to provide comprehensive information on various ecological aspects. To this end, we assessed the dietary composition of the Cape hare in relation to food availability in the North Sahara Desert. The inv...

Understanding the effect of habitat characteristics on the distribution of threatened species are fundamental in conservation planning and management. Here, we explore the spatial distribution pattern of display site by the North African Houbara Bustard Chlamydotis undulata undulata males. For this purpose, we examined 81 sites in an area of 255 km...

The African golden wolf, Canis anthus, is a newly recognized medium-sized canid species from North Africa, which has remained poorly studied to date. We applied genetic methods for individual identification of non-invasively collected samples (n = 93) of the African golden wolf in Tunisia, assessing their genetic diversity and structure. The mitoch...

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a highly adaptable omnivorous mammal distributed across all continents on the northern hemisphere. The fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is widespread in sandy deserts and semi-deserts of North Africa. Although, these two species occupy two different ecosystems in Tunisia, where they play an important ecological role, few stu...

Understanding herbivore foraging behaviour is crucial for adequate wildlife management decisions. This study assessed the diet composition of free-ranging addax antelope (Addaxnasomaculatus (de Blainville, 1816)). Samples collected during the spring season were analyzed using microhistological procedures along with n-alkanes and long-chain alcohols...

Behaviour and diet composition are critical elements in conservation biology within the scope of reintroduction programs. Here we focused on addax (Addax nasomaculatus), a Critically Endangered antelope species, in the Jbil National Park, Tunisia. In this study, we advanced the hypothesis that season, day period, sex and social structure have an ef...

The African golden wolf, Canis anthus, is a newly recognized medium-sized canid species from North Africa, which has remained poorly studied to date. We applied genetic methods for individual identification of non-invasively collected samples (n = 93) of the African golden wolf in Tunisia, assessing their genetic diversity and structure. The mitoch...

This study outlines the importance of integrating spotlighting data and occupancy modelling to estimate the spatial occupancy, abundance and habitat preferences of Cape hares Lepus capensis in southern Tunisia. Exploring the spatial distribution pattern of this species is problematic because of its nocturnal and secretive behaviour. In order to ove...

Global warming is among the most serious environmental challenges facing ecosystems worldwide, due to rising temperatures and altered precipitation regimes. The North African Sahara Desert is considered to be one of the areas most affected by climate change, which will probably lead to the likely retraction of the Mediterranean ecosystem and an inc...

Modelling the distribution of species of conservation concern is an important issue in population ecology. Classically, logistic regression analyses are conducted to estimate species' distributions from detection/non-detection data in a sample of sites and to test for the significance of several environmental variables in predicting the probability...

The houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata undulata) is a semi-desert bird actually threatened.Largely present in the past in the center and in the southern regions of Tunisia, this bird knows for the last few years a continuous decline, because of the deterioration of its habitats and the over-hunting. Moreover, its status remains, unknown in many...

The dorcas gazelle Gazella dorcas was very common and widespread in Tunisia. Nowadays, only some small isolated populations still survive in the desert areas of the southern part of the country. Factors affecting the distribution of this species in Tunisia have never been investigated despite the importance of such investigations for elaborating lo...

This study attempts to establish the present distribution of Houbara Bustard Chlamydotis undulata undulta in Tunisia as well as characterising its use of different habitats. The data were collected during field visits over a five-year period and through information collected from the local population. This research has shown that the Houbara Bustar...

– "Digestibility and intake of a halophytic vegetation in camels grazing in southern Tunisian rangelands". The present work aimed to evaluate intake and digestibility in camels (Camelus dromedaries) conducted on salt vegetation in southern Tunisia. For this purpose, we used the formula: I = 100 x F/(100-CUD) to estimate intake dry matter (I) and ch...

Livestock, especially small ruminants and camels, have been implicated for negatively affecting the abundance and distribution of other large wild animals in desert areas. We tested whether the occurrence of two emblematic species, the Dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas) and Houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata undulata), in south-eastern Tunisia was...