The Crab Plover in Kuwait and the 
northern Arabian Gulf: a brief 
review and some new counts 
P J Cowan 
The Crab Plover Dramas ardeola is an aberrant maritime wader, en- 
demic to coastlines of the Indian Ocean region. It feeds in the intertidal 
zones of mudflats, coral reefs and estuaries, and nests in burrows in 
coastal colonies (Cramp and Simmons 1983). Nesting colonies have 
been found in the Farasan Islands of the Red Sea (Jennings 1988), in 
Somalia on the Gulf of Aden (Benson and Benson 1986), on Masirah 
Island, Oman (Rogers 1988), in the Strait of Hormuz region of southern 
Iran (Carp 1980, Ticehurst et al. 1925) and, apparently, on the northern 
Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia (Hollom et al. 1988). Breeding is 
suspected in the Suakin (Sudan) and Dahlak (Eritrea) archipelagos of 
the Red Sea, in Sri Lanka and in the Gulf of Kutch, Western India 
(Benson and Benson 1986, Palmes and Briggs 1986). Distribution in the 
non-breeding season (northern hemisphere winter) is far more wide- 
spread, occurring on the African coast of the Indian Ocean south to 
Natal and on various Indian Ocean islands with a few reaching 
southern Thailand (Ali and Ripley 1980, Benson and Benson 1986, 
Swennen et al. 1987). Vagrants have reached the Mediterranean Sea 
coast of Turkey (Bouwman 1987) and a site 60 miles inland in India 
(Bharucha and Samant 1984). 
Figure 1. The northern Arabian Gulf. A Auhah, Bh Boonah, Bn Bubiyan, Br 
Bushehr, D Dara, K Kubbar, KB Kuwait Bay, KM Khor Musa, S Shatt Al-Arab, 
SB Sulaibikhat Bay, W Warba. 
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