Almost thirty years have passed since my trip. Currently this is an extremely over-exposed tourist region of Turkey, but back then it was still a calm country, as if created for a backpacker’s trek or vacation. Many Czech naturalists used to travel to Turkey in those days, and mammal research specialists were repeatedly heading to the surroundings of Silifke. They were particularly attracted by a large, sandcoloured Asia Minor spiny mouse, in scientific terminology Acomys cilicicus.

This rodent, living in colonies, was described as an independent species only some twelve or fifteen years earlier by Dr Friederike Spitzenberger. However, its rarity was not based on the recent description, but on the fact that it occurred only at a few places to the East or rather North-East from Silifke. Other related species of spiny mice live elsewhere in the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia, yet its extremely limited occurrence gave the Asia Minor spiny mouse a hallmark of uniqueness and soon it was added as a critically endangered species to the world’s Red List.

Just for the record: We should probably rather use designation “Cilician mouse”. However, the genus name “mouse” is a bit misleading, and the name of species, “Cilician” will not tell us much, despite its aptness (Cilicia was a name used in ancient times for the coast area of today’s Turkey, which includes also Silifke). On the contrary, “spiny mouse” points to stiff spiny-like hair – “spines” – on the back of this little animal, and there is no need for a comment on “Asia Minor”. Therefore, I will stick with the name used in our zoo, Asia Minor spiny mouse.

Colleagues, focusing on mammals, who were visiting the area of Silifke in the first half of the 1990s, were equipped with live-catch mouse traps, and they brought local spiny mice to the Czech Republic. These Asia Minor spiny mice later became the founders of research and amateur breeding – and also breeding in Prague Zoo, which obtained them in 1999. You can see them in the Africa Up Close house today. It is said that they are descendants of a single pregnant female. From the breeding in our zoo and Plzeň Zoo Asia Minor spiny mice spread to many other zoos throughout Europe.

Thanks to the research breeding an impressive number of scientific papers were written on Asia Minor spiny mice. With the development of molecular biology and genetics, and through the Czech contribution, an answer to a question where the Asia Minor spiny mice near Silifke (and also related species on Cyprus and Crete) actually came from gradually formed. Today we can consider it almost certain that their great ancestors arrived at all these places as stowaways on boats coming probably from Egypt. Not on any steel steamships, but on ancient wooden ships long before Frederick Barbarossa threw himself into the torrent of the Göksu River. Just imagine it: a ship loaded by amphoras and bales, amongst which spiny mice (Egyptian) run back and forth, is landing somewhere in Cilicia near today’s Silifke or Mersin. Spiny mice get on the shore and on the rocks covered by sparse vegetation, where they resist the endless flow of time for generations…

Although… I should rather write they resisted the flow of time. In the world’s Red List, the Asia Minor spiny mouse is now classified in the category of data deficient species. This is because it is not clear whether it is an independent species or just a local population of Egyptian spiny mouse. However, at the same time there are voices that say justifiably that regardless of taxonomical questions these spiny mice deserve the strictest protection. Due to the development of southern Turkey – urbanisation, road construction, expansion of fields or forestation – their number is rapidly decreasing. If the current development continues, they might soon become completely extinct. And that would really be a pity.