Negev additives. Vegetation in the Negev is sparse, but certain trees and plants thrive there, among them "Acacia", "Pistacia", "Retama", "Urginea maritima" and "Thymelaea". A small population of Arabian leopards, an endangered animal in the Arabian peninsula, survives in the southern Negev. The Negev Tortoise ("Testudo werneri") is a critically endangered species that currently lives only in the sands of the western and central Negev Desert. The Negev shrew ("Crocidura ramona") is a species of mammal of the family Soricidae found only in Israel. "Hyphaene thebaica" or doum palm can be found in the Southern Negev. Evrona is the most northerly
Negev Bedouin to Baghdad during the subsequent Abbasid reign. Most of the Negev Bedouin tribes migrated to the Negev from the Arabian Desert, Transjordan, Egypt, and the Sinai from the 18th century onwards. Traditional Bedouin lifestyle began to change after the French invasion of Egypt in 1798. The rise of the puritanical Wahhabi sect forced them to reduce their raiding of caravans. Instead, the Bedouin acquired a monopoly on guiding pilgrim caravans to Mecca, as well as selling them provisions. The opening of the Suez canal reduced the dependence on desert caravans and attracted the Bedouin to newly formed settlements that sprung