Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 20, December 1990, pp. 1-11. | Page 8

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are smaller than sheep, and in the southern Naqab and Sinai, weigh only 12-25
kilogram. Hairs of the black Bedouin goats have been found in wolf scats
collected in this area, but it is unknown whether they were from kills or carrion
(Mendelssohn I982).
The desert pallipes tend to approach settlements and people more than do the
Mediterranean wolves. In a desert kibbutz (communal agricultural Israeli
settlement), wolves entered the cowsheds at night and moved among cattle and
calves without molesting even the youngest calves. However, they entered a
hen-house and killed chickens. In another desert kibbutz, the wolves visited the
area of the hen-houses at night and caught escaped chickens, but entered a henhouse and killed 10 hens when a door was left open. Their main food at both
places, however, was chicken carcasses and offal that they scavenged from the
garbage dump. These wolves react eagerly to the cheeping of chicks and were
attracted from about one kilometer by these cheeps, both live and tape-recorded.
Altogether, Palestinian wolves do not suffer from lack of food, as almost all
specimens that could be examined were in prime physical condition
(Mendelssohn I982).
Wolves and hyenas (Hyaena hyaena syriaca) meet quite often at garbage dumps,
carcasses and feeding stations. Wolves generally make way for the hyenas which
are larger, adults weighing 25-40 kilogram. In one observation, however, a group
of wolves drove a hyena from a carcass.
Wolves feeding on carcasses during daylight may meet vultures. One pair of
wolves was feeding on a carcass at a feeding station in the morning. Eight griffon
vultures (Gyps fulvus fulvus) from a nearby colony arrived, but did not approach
the carcass until the wolves had departed. In another case, a lone wolf fed one
morning on a carcass at another feeding station. Seventeen griffon vultures
arrived and tried time and again, to approach the carcass, but were chased away
each time by the wolf. They too had to wait until the wolf had departed
(Mendelssohn I982).
In deserts, where wolves are relatively common, jackals (Canis aureus syriacus)
occur only in a few localities. It is believed that jackals are more dependent on
water since they are found, particularly in the desert, only near human
settlements where water is available. It may, however, also be the easy
availability of food that attracts jackals to settlements. Desert wolves, on the
other hand, have been observed up to 50 kilometer from the nearest water.
Possibly they drink only infrequently and husband their body water efficiently.
In the few Mediterranean areas where both species occur, wolves are rare and
probably cannot influence jackal populations. Cases of direct interactions
between wolves and jackals have not been observed, but wolves probably
dominate (Mendelssohn I982).
Feral dogs have replaced wolves in Palestine where wolves have disappeared.
These feral dogs are crossbreeds between pariah dogs, which are no longer pure
in Palestine, and imported European breeds, mainly alsatians. They subsist
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 20 – De ??????????((0