Wildlife of Palestine

Some interesting sites on wildlife in Palestine which deserve support.

The Palestine Wildlife Society is an active, professional, Non-Profit Organization whose scope of work covers the West Bank and Gaza with a multidimensional mission aiming at the conservation and enhancement of the biodiversity and wildlife in Palestine. Visit



Today, the largest Palestinian land animals are mountain gazelles, wild boar, foxes, jungle cats, Nubian ibex and the rarely seen leopards, hyenas, jackals and wolves. In all, there are 116 different species of land animals in Palestine, compared with 140 in the whole of Europe, which is 300 times larger. This is an impressive figure for a small country, but the numbers of animals within each species is shrinking.
Since the 1960s, the Nature Reserves Authority has been reintroducing populations of animals which were native to the area in biblical times, under a program known as Hai-Bar. Breeding centers for Mediterranean animals (in the Carmel) and desert animals (at Yotvata in the Araba) have been set up, and five species selected for the first stage: ostriches, roe deer, Asiatic wild asses, Persian fallow deer and white oryx. All except the roe deer are globally endangered. The founder animals for each species came from both zoos and the wild, around the world. Successful reintroductions into the wild have already been implemented for the Asiatic wild ass (starting in 1982), the fallow deer (since 1996) and, most recently, the white oryx (1997). Visit Mammals of Palestine

An incomplete list of 2,700 species of vascular plants which are native to Palestine, the Land of Israel. The area defined as Palestine in the Flora Palaestina includes: the whole area of the State of Israel as of 2007; the West Bank; the Gaza Strip; the Golan Heights; the Israeli part of Mount Hermon; and the East Bank, which is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Wikipedia

Books about Palestian wildlife

This work is intended for individuals with diverse interests such as conservation, zoogeography, and taxonomy as well as the amateur naturalist



Mammals of the Holy Land