Range Description

Widespread species, occurring on the northern Saharan fringe (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Lybia), and then in open and dry savanna zones throughout sub-Saharan Africa in three large blocks, corresponding roughly to West Africa, East Africa and southern Africa (Delibes and Gaubert in press). Also occurs in coastal regions of Arabia, Yemen and Oman (Harrison and Bates 1991); records from Palestine are in error (Kock 1983).

For Europe, Delibes (1999) lists this species as occurring in all of continental Portugal and Spain, and most of France (mainly south of Loire River and west of the Rhone River). It is also found on the Mediterranean islands of Majora, Ibiza, and Cabrera (Balearic Islands) (Delibes 1999). There are also scattered records from Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and north-west Italy (Delibes 1999). This species is generally considered to have been introduced to Europe and the Balearic islands (Delibes 1999). It has been recorded to 2,600 m in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco (Cuzin 2003) and at least 3,000 m asl in the Ethiopian Highlands (Admasu et al. 2004)