Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 84, December 2008, pp. 1-18. | Page 10

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Class: AMPHIBIA
Order: ANURA
Family: DISCOGLOSSIDAE
Genus: Discoglossus
Species: Discoglossus nigriventer

Palestine or Hula painted frog. Foto: Professor Heinrich Mendelssohn.
http://www.arkive.org/media/A5625856-79E0-4232-86F08567D5843BF9/Presentation.Large/photo.jpg
Major Threats: The Hula swamp areas were drained in the 1950’s in an attempt to
eradicate malaria and to make the land suitable for agriculture. Of the original 6,000ha of
swampland, only 300ha remained and this area was set aside as a nature reserve (a
considerable distance from the recorded localities) in 1964, but it seems that this action
was too late to save the species. It is presumed to be extinct due to swamp drainage and
agricultural development.
Conservation Measures: This species is protected by national legislation in both Palestine
and Israel. Surveys of the A’ammiq marsh in southeast Lebanon in April 2004 and April
2005 failed to find any individuals. This marsh is the only remaining wetland fragment of
the Beqa’a (Beka’a) valley, which was once a major wetland of the Middle East but has
been drastically reduced by agriculture and urban development.
In 2000 a scientist of the Lebanese nature protection organisation La Rocha Lebanon,
claimed he had seen a frog species which could be Discoglossus nigriventer in the
A’ammiq marshes south of the Beqa’a Valley in Lebanon. Two French-Lebanese-British
expeditions in the years 2004 and 2005 brought no confirmation of the further existence
of this species. (Khalaf-von Jaffa, February 2007).
Gazelle – Number 84 – December 2008