Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 107, November 2013, pp. 1-29. | Page 5

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species." In Palestine wild pigs are common, but there are no observations indicating that wolves prey on them (Khalaf-von Jaffa, 1990). Scavenging on garbage dumps presents another source of food and the smaller subspecies of wolves, especially the small Canis lupus arabs, feed also on rodents and other small animals (Khalaf-von Jaffa, 1990).

The Arabian Wolf (Canis lupus arabs) at the Arabia’s Wildlife Centre in Sharjah, UAE. 15.06.2012. Photo by: Prof. Dr. Norman Ali Bassam Khalaf-von Jaffa. Mendelssohn (1983) writes: "Wolves are endangered by shooting, as in most countries of this region "everybody carries a gun and shoots at everything" (Kumerloeve, personal communication) and wolves are shot on sight. If they prey on livestock, retaliation poisoning or trapping ensues. Many poisons are available and widely used: Fluoracetamide (1081), Sodiumfluoracetate (1080), Strychnine, as well as pesticides, such as Endrin, Parathion, etc. Rabies is endemic in most countries of the region, and the veterinary authorities carry out poisoning campaigns, using mostly strychnine and 1080, in order to eradicate predators and feral dogs.” Thus the life of the wolf in most areas of the Middle East is precarious because of the unpredictable and unsure supply of food, persecution and antirabies campaigns. Their survival is due to the fact that in most areas of this region the density of human population is still low, and nomadic livestock raising is widespread, with quite a high rate of mortality in the herds, thus supplying carcasses. The human population, however, increases rapidly, and veterinary care of the nomadic herds improves, causing a decrease in the availability of carcasses (Mendelssohn 1983, Khalaf-von Jaffa 1990). The eventual survival of wolves in the Middle East will depend on the slowly
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 107 – November 2013