Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 20, December 1990, pp. 1-11.

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The Wolf (Canis lupus) in Palestine
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By: Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher Khalaf-von Jaffa
As evidenced by quotations in the Holy Qur'an, the wolf (Canis lupus Linnaeus,
1758) coexisted with man in the area of Palestine for thousands of years and was
well known as a predator, as we know it from the story of Prophet Yusuf
(Joseph). The Reverend Tristram (1884) stated that the wolf is found in every part
of Palestine. Wolves still live in over half of Palestine, but have disappeared
during the last 40 years from the more densely settled areas. It appears, however,
that in some areas their population has increased recently due to easily available
food from garbage dumps (Mendelssohn 1982).
The "Israeli" Wild Animals Protection Law of 1954 completely protected almost
all wild animals in Occupied Palestine except, among others, the Palestine
Golden Jackal (Canis aureus palaestina Khalaf, 2008), which was later given
complete protection.
The human population of “Israel” in 1979 was 3,830,000 in an area of 20,720
square kilometer, or 185 people per square kilometer. The northern and central
part of the country has a much higher human density than Al-Naqab (Negev)
Desert (the southern arid part) and the Rift Valley (Jordan Valley, Dead Sea
depression and Wadi Araba), where most of the contemporary wolf population
lives. Already in the 1930s, wolves had disappeared from the densely settled
areas - the coastal plain between Haifa and Jaffa and the mountains between
Nablus and Hebron (Al Khalil).
Palestinian wolves are animals of open areas. They have never inhabited the
dense Mediterranean scrub forest that covers about 400 square kilometer in
Galilee (Jaleel) and on Mount Carmel. According to Shahi (1977, 1983), the Indian
Canis lupus pallipes Sykes 1831, apparently also do not live in dense forest cover.
Because of Palestine's small size, its nature reserves are also small and, thus, are
of little use to such wide-ranging animals as wolves. The largest nature reserve in
the north, that of Mount Meron (Jabal Al Jarmaq), has an area of about 90 square
kilometer, which is largely covered by scrub forest and therefore not suitable for
wolves.
Several subspecies of wolves occur in the Middle East. The smallest of all the
wolf subspecies, the Arabian Canis lupus arabs Pocock, 1934, is found in a large
part of the Arabian Peninsula, in Southern Sinai, in Southern Palestine and
probably also in Southern Jordan. To the north of the distribution of this
subspecies, the Indian Canis lupus pallipes occurs, the distribution of which
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 20 – December 1990