Fauna
Animals of Palestine includes a rich assemblage of vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish) and invertebrates (insects, snails, spiders etc). Palestine’s diverse habitats have allowed for thousands of animal species to evolve, many of them unique to our country, and furthermore has provided ideal conditions for hundreds of millions of birds that pass here on their annual migration between Europe and Africa. Yet and especially since the industrial revolution, human interventions have resulted in a strong decline of a previously amazing animal diversity of life. Animals that have become extinct in Palestine over the past few hundred years include ostriches, the fishing owl, the Syrian brown bear, the roe deer, lions, and cheetah. Lions lingered perhaps until the thirteenth century. The last cheetah remained in the distant hills in our countries up until the early 1900s. There are remaining large animals that are endangered including the leopard, gazelles, wolves, vultures, and caracal for which illegal hunting and destruction of habitats remain the main sources of threats. There are fewer actual studies of fauna of Gaza than the West Bank and they are rather anecdotal and perfunctory (examples Abd Rabou 2005, 2009; Abd Rabou et al 2015). A more intensive and scientific study is needed and this is recognized by the Palestinian government (e.g. see EQA 2015).
While species richness declines north to south and its higher on the western than the eastern (drier) mountainous areas, there are gaps of knowledge especially in the West Bank and Gaza that explains the uneven data of species richness data for Palestine (Levin & Shmida, 2007). Much more data needs to be collected on fauna and flora. Citizen science and database entries is growing. Mahmiyat.ps was established as the first web presence for the Palestinian nature reserves in 2016. The Hanns Seidel Foundation together with Palestinian partners implemented the website. It aims at raising environmental awareness among the Palestinian Society about the nature reserves in the West bank and Gaza strip by providing information about the reserves and nearby historical and cultural sites as well as nearby services such as guesthouses and points of sale for local products. In addition, it provides simple and user-friendly databases of the Palestinian flora and fauna that made the website an online educational tool serving different sectors of the society.
Palestinians entered records for biodiversity in GBIF. As of 2021, there are 203,102 occurrences and 279 datasets about State of Palestine (https://www.gbif.org/country/PS/summary) but most of these are not by local actors and are mostly museum or other older records. Currently and with support of HSF, some observations and photos are being collected and added to the website http://Observation.org. This portal was established in 2005 with 11 observations that year that expanded rapidly to have 3.1 million observations entered in 2020 alone. It has been used as an organizing tool for some national biodiversity data gathering efforts. Statistical data shows 24,451 observations entered under the state of Palestine until 14 June 2021 with the majority being birds. This is also similar to all observations recorded on that portal where 73% of them are birds. Israel had 316,728 observations recorded (13 times as many observations as State of Palestine). On iNaturalist platform (https://www.inaturalist.org/), State of Palestine has 5,503 records while Israel has 85,654 records. Palestine did develop its databases and research and mapping of biodiversity (fauna and flora). Increasing public awareness and training nature lovers (future observers) is focused on key areas rather than a national attempt at collecting observations by the very few interested individuals. At a much later stage when the situation becomes like European countries in awareness and bird watching levels, such portals become useful. For example, at present we have a handful of people interested in watching birds and only part of them are willing to enter observations on the web portal. In a small European country, there may be hundreds or thousands of bird watchers. The focus here is to think of a strategy to spread awareness and nurture a new generation of bird watchers for the next few years. There are separate databases for biodiversity maintained by ARIJ and also by Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS). PIBS published research articles on insects, scorpions, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Extensive data associated with verified records (specimens, photos, etc.) are maintained. PIBS has the ambitious goal of mapping biodiversity based on original research in all accessible areas in the State of Palestine. More and more areas are becoming less accessible (due to occupation and mobility issues) so there is a race against time to map at least the key and potential protected areas in area C.
Mammals: Seminal works on mammals done in 1970s by Dr. Sana Atallah showed that in Palestine we have 130 species of mammals (about 20 are extinct). But the most comprehensive data available on the mammals of historic Palestine including Gaza (Qumsiyeh 1996; Mendelssohn and Yom Tov 1999 and personal observations/updates on mammals) shows 42 terrestrial species and 10 marine species as likely found in the Wadi Gaza area (including in the coastal areas): Abd Rabou (2019, 2011) reported 17 mammalian species at the zoological garden of Gaza belonging to 12 families and 5 orders including the Grey Wolf, Jungle Cat, Egyptian Mongoose, Common Badger, Striped Hyena, Indian Crested Porcupine and others. Abd Rabou (2009) also reported on some of the carnivores (threatened). Two of the mammal species that exist in the West Bank are invasive, the Coypu Myocastor coypus found in a numbers in the Jenin District, and the brown rat Rattus norvegicus. According to Meiri et al., (2019) many species of mammals consider endangered and near threatened locally and some globally. All mammals need to be protected but over 50% of our species come under the categories of Vu, En, Cr, RE according to the IUCN categories. Notably, the Arabian Gazelle, the Mountain Gazelle, and the Arabian wolf are becoming rarer. As a mammal, human diversity in state of Palestine is also worth considering. Tens of thousands of years ago, early humans migrated out of their region of early origin in southeastern Africa, initially to this part of the world and not much later further on. The Fertile Crescent's mild weather and rich soils allowed for such a wide variety of wild plants and animals to thrive that humans in turn were able to flourish by harvesting them from nature. About twelve thousand years ago the people of this region were among the first to rely on agriculture when they domesticated wheat, barley, lentils, and chickpeas and raised goats, camels. This transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to settled agricultural and pastoral life made possible an increase in human population and the development of civilization and religious beliefs among first the local Natufian and later the Canaanitic people. Over time, a diversity of religious beliefs evolved here that led to its being considered a Holy Land for nearly half the human population on earth.
Birds: State of Palestine's location as a bottleneck between Eurasia and Africa makes it an important root migration for over 500 million birds in the migration season. Mostly unpublished data were collected by Palestinians (Dr. Anton Khalilieh, Dr. Walid Al Basha, Mr. Imad Atrash, Mr. Mahd Khair, Mr. Simon Awad, Mr. Michel Farhoud, Mr. Riad Abu Sada, Mr. Saed Al Shomali, and from Gaza Dr. Abdel Fattah Abd Rabou) and earlier literature (Tristram, 1884; Bodenheimer, 1935; Paz, 1987; Shirihai, 1996). Accumulated data suggest that nearly 400 bird species were identified from the Palestinian territories which represent 22 Orders, 64 Families, and 186 genera (Awad et al., 2015), Four invasive alien bird species were detected from the West Bank, Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri), Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus), Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis) and Indian Silverbill (Lonchura malabarica). These species need focus studies to understand their effect on other parts of the biodiversity including their role on bird native species, a study is done on the Common Myna to understate the distribution and its status in the West Bank (Handal and Qumsiyeh, 2021). Al-Safadi (1997) presented a comprehensive study on the breeding cycle of the Spur-winged Plover, Hoploplerus spinosus, in the sewage lagoon of Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip. Abd Rabou et al., (2015b) recorded 118 bird species belonging to 38 families were recorded in the targeted area many of them are very rare or even endangered (e.g. imperial and golden eagles).
Reptiles and Amphibians: Herpetological studies in state of Palestine started in the 19th century by having a taxonomical survey in the Holy Land (Boettger, 1878; Tristram, 1884; Hart, 1891; Peracca, 1894; Werner, 1988). 98 species of reptiles were recorded from Historic Palestine (Werner, 2017) and eight species of amphibians are reported (Meiri et al., 2019) Handal et al., (2016) recorded 36 species of reptiles belonging to 13 families from the West Bank, and with unpublished data from the PIBS\PMNH this number will reach 40 species of reptiles. The Gaza Strip has 20 species of reptiles (Abd Rabou 2019). The most recent description for a new endemic species of reptiles from the Historic Palestine were published in 2016 for a new species of snake (Rhynchocalamus dayanae) from the Naqab (Tamar et al., 2016), and according to Jamison et al., (2020) that studied the genus Micrelaps shows that both the morphological and molecular results conclude that Micrelaps tchernovi is morph of M. muelleri in the Historic Palestine. There are three invasive species of reptiles were detected in the Historic Palestine in the past few years: two geckos (Cyrtopodion scabrum and Tarentola annularis) and a turtle (Trachemys scripta) (Roll et all., 2008; Jamison et al., 2017; and Meiri et al., 2019). In the State of Palestine we have four species of amphibians belong to the group of frogs and toads (Salman et al., 2014). The Amphibians in our area belong to two orders with six families: Salamandridae, Bufonidae, Hylidae, Ranidae, Discorglossidae, and Pelobatidae. Almost all amphibians in Palestine are endangered due to habitat destruction (specially the water sources), intensive farming (changing soil contents and using chemical fertilizers), degradation of wetland habitats in the Dead Sea basin, Gaza Strip and fresh and grey water, rivers, Wadi systems, closing water springs due to conservation from pollution, and Climate Change. In the West Bank we recorded 4 species of amphibians (Pelophylax bedriagae – Levant Green Frog, Hyla savignyi – Middle East Tree Frog, Pelobates syriacus – Eastern Spadefoot Toad, Bufotes variabilis – European Green Toad.) these species belong to four different families (Bufonidae, Pelobatidae, Hylidae, and Ranidae). The Pelobates syriacus – Eastern Spadefoot Toad is the rarest species of amphibians in the West Bank where it is only found in the temporally pond in Jinsafout which its extinct from Jordan, the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University study this species intensively and publish a detailed report for how to conserve this species and working together with the EQA this pond become a protected areas as part of Wadi Qana protected area in Salfit District (PIBS, 2018). In Gaza; Abd Rabou et al, (2015) and Abd Rabou (2019) recorded three species of amphibians (Pelophylax bedriagae, Hyla savignyi, and Bufotes variabilis) belonging to three different families.
Fish: There is rich biodiversity of freshwater fish and of marine (saltwater) fish in state of Palestine. 23 species of fish including several endemic species are noted in the Jordan river basin. Many are endangered because of Israel’s diversion of water from the basin and blocking many springs whose water is now taken directly to feed Israeli settlements. Nearly 500 species of fish live of of the Mediterranean coas of historic Palestine (Shirak et al. 2016). Abd Rabou et al (2007) made observations about the marine fish fauna based on collections by fisherman.
Invertebrates: There are few systematic studies of the diversity of invertebrates in the State of Palestine. Two papers were published on scorpions (Qumsiyeh et al., 2013, 2014a). There are 55 species of butterflies in the West Bank (Abusarhan et al., 2016) and 25 in Gaza Strip (Dardona et al. 2015). 13 species of dragonflies belonging to 3 families are known in the West Bank (Adawi et al., 2017). 17 species (3 first recorded in the Historic Palestine) of Praying mantises (Mantodea) were reported in the paper by Handal et al. (2018). Over 40 species of grasshoppers and locusts are reported from the West Bank (Abusarhan et al. 2017). A study on the Flower Chafers (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae) showed nine species (Handal and Amr 2017) and another showed 15 species of mosquitoes from Salfit district with 6 species one of them invasive (Adawi and Qasem 2018). The richness in biodiversity is shown when detailed studies are done. For example, 35 species of ladybeetles (Coccinellidae) are noted just in in the southern area of the West Bank (Najajreh et al. 2019) and 22 species of sandflies are noted from the northern West Bank (Sawalha et al., 2017). Two new records of invasive true bugs (Heteroptera) species from the West Bank Leptoglossus occidentalis and Deroplax silphoides (Handal, 2017; Handal and Qumsiyeh, 2019). Two major studies on the systematics of freshwater snails and land snails done, freshwater snail with 10 species (Handal et al., 2015) and a master thesis on Land snails shows a diversity of 41 species, 3 of them are invasive to Palestine (Handal et al., 2018 master thesis at Birzeit University, see also Amr et al., 2018). Other studies on progress at the Biodiversity center in the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) – Bethlehem University on several groups of invertebrates (like: Pseudoscorpions, collembola, solifugae, weevils, and other groups of Diptera).
See References in the Publications