Mammals of Somalia: all 191 species on record

In short

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international open database that pools species records from museums, herbaria, scientists and members of the public. On 12 November 2026 it held records of 191 mammal species with Somalia as the country (GBIF occurrence search, mammals, Somalia).

By order, the species on record are (GBIF Backbone Taxonomy):

• Rodents (Rodentia): 45
• Bats (Chiroptera): 44
• Even-toed hoofed mammals (Artiodactyla), such as antelopes, gazelles, giraffes and wild pigs: 34
• Carnivores (Carnivora), such as lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, jackals and mongooses: 28
• Primates (Primates): 10
• Whales and dolphins (Cetacea): 7
• Shrews (Soricomorpha): 7
• Odd-toed hoofed mammals (Perissodactyla), the wild ass, zebras and rhinoceros: 4
• Hedgehogs (Erinaceomorpha): 3
• Elephant shrews or sengis (Macroscelidea): 3
• Hyraxes (Hyracoidea): 2
• Hares (Lagomorpha): 2
• Golden moles (Afrosoricida): 1, the Somali golden mole
• Elephants (Proboscidea): 1, the African elephant

Species under threat

The IUCN Red List places these Somali-recorded mammals in a threatened category (GBIF species API, IUCN Red List category):

• Critically Endangered: African wild ass (Somali wild ass) and black rhinoceros.
• Endangered: African elephant, African wild dog, Grevy's zebra, East African oryx, Speke's gazelle and slender-horned gazelle.
• Vulnerable: lion, leopard, cheetah, hippopotamus, sperm whale, Soemmerring's gazelle, Clark's gazelle (dibatag), beira, dorcas gazelle, Arabian gazelle and the Seychelles free-tailed bat.

How to read this list

A species is on this list when GBIF holds at least one record of it from Somalia. A record can be a museum specimen from the 1890s, a sighting shared through eBird or iNaturalist, or a specimen cited in a scientific paper. Some records are old, and a few may be misidentified, so this is a list of records, not of what lives in Somalia today. Of the 191 species, 35 have only one record.

Red List summary

• Critically Endangered (CR): 2
• Endangered (EN): 6
• Vulnerable (VU): 11
• Near Threatened (NT): 5
• Least Concern (LC): 140
• Data Deficient (DD): 13
• Not Evaluated (NE): 14

Categories are from the IUCN Red List as published through GBIF (GBIF species API, IUCN Red List category).

Largest families

• Muridae: 34 species
• Bovidae: 30 species
• Vespertilionidae: 13 species
• Herpestidae: 7 species
• Soricidae: 7 species
• Canidae: 6 species
• Felidae: 6 species
• Cercopithecidae: 6 species
• Delphinidae: 5 species
• Hipposideridae: 5 species

Full list (191 species)

Each name links to its Calankii page where one exists, otherwise to its GBIF species page. "Records in Somalia" is the number of GBIF occurrence records with Somalia as the country, counted on 12 November 2026 (GBIF occurrence search, Somalia). The same rows, with Wikidata ids and more columns, are in the open data file species-recorded-in-somalia.csv.

This list is in 2 parts: 1 · 2

This list is in 2 parts: 1 · 2

Sources

• GBIF occurrence search, country Somalia
• GBIF Backbone Taxonomy
• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species