Presence of the Arabian Wolf (Canis lupus arabs) in Khan Yunis Governorate, Gaza Strip, Palestine

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Presence of the Arabian Wolf (Canis lupus arabs Pocock, 1934) in Khan Yunis Governorate, Gaza Strip, State of Palestine By : Prof. Dr. Sc. Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher Mohammad Ahmad Ahmad Mostafa Abdullah Mohammad Khalaf-Prinz Sakerfalke von Jaffa

The Arabian Wolf (Canis lupus arabs) of Gaza. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2135556016464579&set=a.783900298296831&type=3&theater

Residents of the border areas in the eastern part of the Palestinian Gaza Strip continued to doubt the sounds of howling they heard during the night, whether they were wolfs or dogs, until a young Gazan man managed to catch alive an Arabian Wolf, after setting a trap in his sheep farm, east of Khan Yunis Governorate in the southern Gaza Strip, in early December 2018.

The Arabian wolf (Canis lupus arabs Pocock, 1934) is a subspecies of gray wolf which lives on the Arabian Peninsula. It is the smallest sized wolf known. It is a desert-adapted wolf that normally lives in small groups and is omnivorous, eating carrion and garbage as well as small to medium-sized prey (Khalaf, 1990, 2013; Wikipedia).

The news of the wolves was spread in the eastern parts of the Gaza Strip, especially Khan Yunis, and raised the fears and worries of the citizens who hurried to secure their sheds and avoid moving during the night, especially for children, for fear of exposure to them (Al Jamal, 2018).

Residents of the border areas have been suffering for years from foxes, feral dogs and jackals that infiltrated the Gaza Strip through the separation border line, through borders from inside the Green Israeli Line (Occupied Palestine) and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. However, the Gazan Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 176 – August 2019

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population did not feel the wolves during the last period, which succeeded recently to infiltrate to the eastern parts of the Gaza Strip, and the people began hearing their howling few months ago near the landfill of the border town Al Fakhari (Al Jamal, 2018).

The knowledge that there are wolves in the area raised the concerns of people, especially those who have livestock sheds in the farms and barns in the agricultural areas. So everyone began securing their sheds, reinforcing it with metal netting, barbed wire, and refraining from leaving homes at night. So far, there have been no incidents of wolves, whether on livestock, poultry or people, but fear is still present, considering that the harm caused by feral dogs and foxes to farmers is much larger (Al Jamal, 2018).

It cannot be ruled out the fact that wolves have been living in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip for a long time. They are very similar to feral dogs, and also their howling is very similar. People may have seen the wolves and did not recognize it (Al Jamal, 2018).

According to Associate Professor Dr. Abdel Fattah Abd Rabou, wolves were present in the Gaza Strip six to seven decades ago, but because of the separation fence and barbed wire, the agricultural development, the lack of space, the increase in human population and the lack of natural areas, the numbers of wolves have dropped to zero. Some Gazans have seen a small number of them during the past years, entering through openings or gaps in the Israeli separation fence, especially after the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in late 2005. Some Gazan wolf specimens can be seen in the zoos of Gaza (Al Jamal, 2018).

Associate Professor Dr. Abdel Fattah Abd Rabou also mentioned that it is not excluded that the solid waste landfills which is widespread in the east part of the Gaza Strip, have attracted some wild animals such as red foxes, jackals, wolves, and other species of wildlife such as birds, reptiles and some small mammals. Dr. Abd Rabou added that the gray wolf is a predatory animal that can attack livestock or farm animals, so we must be careful (Al Jamal, 2018).

According to the Environmental Researcher Ayman Dardona, the wolf has been in the Palestinian environment since time immemorial, and is considered a harmless animal, and rarely attacks humans, but on the contrary it is afraid of humans and avoids them. Dardona called not to harm animals, especially wolves, because they are part of the natural environmental balance, and killing them causes a disturbance in the ecological system (Al Jamal, 2018).

A decade ago, people began to complain about the infiltration of predators, most of them arriving at night through openings in the separation fence in the eastern Gaza Strip, and they return with the first daylight hours to their environments within the Israeli Green Line (Al Jamal, 2018).

Taxonomy Once thought to possibly be Canis lupus pallipes (the Indian wolf), the Arabian wolf was designated Canis lupus arabs by the British zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock in 1934. Pocock noted its smaller skull and smaller size. In the third edition of “Mammal Species of the World” published in 2005, the mammalogist W. Christopher Wozencraft listed under the wolf Canis lupus the subspecies Canis lupus arabs. A 2014 study suggests that genetically the Arabian wolf is closer to C. l. lupus than it is to C. l. pallipes and supports the subspecies designation C. l.

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arabs (Bray et al, 2014). There has been admixture with domestic dogs but it is unclear whether this is why this wolf is genetically closer to C. l. lupus (Bray et al, 2014). This raises a concern of extinction by hybridization as Arabian wolves are more adapted to desert life than wolf/dog hybrids (Khalaf, 1990, 2013; Wikipedia).

In Palestine/Israel there is some disagreement as to the exact taxonomic status of wolves. Some scientists hold that two subspecies of wolf are present - C. l. pallipes in the northern parts and C. l. arabs in the south. They point out that the southern wolves are smaller than the northern wolves which are also darker and have longer fur (Mendelssohn and Yom-Tov, 1999; Khalaf, 1990, 2013; Wikipedia). Other scientists consider the wolf in the area to be C. l. arabs with no real distinction between northern and southern wolves (Hefner and Geffen, 1999). As in other countries there is interbreeding with feral dogs which adds an element of uncertainty (Mendelssohn and Yom-Tov, 1999; Khalaf, 1990, 2013; Wikipedia).

Admixture with other Canis species In 2018, whole genome sequencing was used to compare members of the genus Canis. The study found evidence of gene flow between African golden wolves, golden jackals, and grey wolves (from Saudi Arabia and Syria). One African golden wolf from the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula showed high admixture with the Middle Eastern grey wolves and dogs, highlighting the role of the land bridge between the African and Eurasian continents in canid evolution. The African golden wolf was found to be the descendant of a genetically admixed canid of 72% grey wolf and 28% Ethiopian wolf ancestry (Gopalakrishnan et al, 2018; Wikipedia).

Description The Arabian wolf is small for Canis lupus and stands on average 25–26 inches (64–66 cm) at shoulder height and the adult weighs an average of 45 pounds (20.41 kg). The cranial length of the adult Arabian wolf measures on average 200.8 mm, which is smaller than most wolves (Walker 2008). Along with the Indian wolf, it is probably smaller than other wolves to help it adapt to life in a hot, dry climate (Fuller, 2004). This is an example of Bergmann's rule, where mammal size varies by the warmth of their environment. Its ears are proportionally larger in relation to its body size when compared to other sub-species of Canis lupus, an adaptation probably developed to help disperse body heat (Allen's Rule) (Mills, 1945). Arabian wolves do not usually live in large packs, and instead hunt in pairs or in groups of about three or four animals (Natural Emirates, 1996; Hefner and Geffen, 1999). They have a short thin coat which is usually a grayish beige color, "... a mixture of black and slightly buffy grey" (Pocock, 1935).

Similar to other canines, the Arabian wolf does not have sweat glands and so it must control its body temperature by rapid panting, which causes evaporation from the lungs. Occasionally the pads of the third and fourth toes are fused in the back; a feature which differentiates its tracks from a dog's (Ferguson and Menache, 2002). It is distinguished from the Indian wolf by its smaller skull and smaller size and thinner coat (Pocock, 1935; Khalaf, 1990, 2013; Wikipedia).

Diet Arabian wolves are mainly carnivorous but also omnivorous and in some areas largely dependent on human garbage and excess products (Hefner and Geffen, 1999). They also feed on hares, rodents, small ungulates, cats, sweet fruits, roadkill and other carrion (Mendelssohn and YomTov, 1999). Opportunistically almost any small animal including fish, snails, and baby baboons can be part of their diet (Biquand et al, 1994). Because Arabian wolves can attack and eat any Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 176 – August 2019

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domestic animals up to the size of a goat, Bedouins and farmers will not hesitate to shoot, poison, or trap them (Cunningham and Wronski, 2010; Khalaf, 1990, 2013; Wikipedia).

Range and Conservation The Arabian wolf was once found throughout the Arabian Peninsula but now lives only in small pockets in southern occupied Palestine (Cohen et al, 2013), southern and western Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia (Bray et al, 2014), and some parts of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt (Gecchele et al, 2017). It is rare throughout most of its range because of human persecution (Hefner and Geffen, 1999). In Oman wolf populations have increased because of a ban on hunting, and they may naturally re-establish themselves in certain places within the region in the relatively near term (Natural Emirates, 1996). In Palestine/Israel, between 100 and 150 Arabian wolves are found across the Naqab (Negev) and the Arabah (Arava). The United Arab Emirates and Egypt both have a captive breeding program and the wolf is protected in Oman and Palestine/Israel but elsewhere its future is uncertain. In Saudi Arabia the wolf is protected in places and still exists in places with sparse human activity (Cunningham and Wronski, 2010; Khalaf, 1990, 2013; Wikipedia).

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Wikipedia. Arabian Wolf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_wolf Wikipedia. Subspecies of Canis lupus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subspecies_of_Canis_lupus Wild Arabia. Arabian Wolf. http://www.wildarabia.com/13-arabian-wolf Wilson , D. E. & D. M. Reeder (1993). Mammal species of the world: a taxonomic and geographic reference. Smithsonian Inst. Press, Washington, DC. Wozencraft, W.C. (2005). Order Carnivora. In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 575–577. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. . ‫ فلسطين‬. ‫ األيام‬. ‫ محمد الجمل‬: ‫ بقلم‬. ‫الذئب الرمادي وافد ٌ جديد يثير قلق سكان المناطق الحدودية شرق القطاع‬ . 04.12.2018HTTP://WWW.ALAYYAM.PS/AR_PAGE.PHP?ID=13001BE9Y318774249Y13001BE9

An Arabian Wolf (Canis lupus arabs) at Arabia's Wildlife Centre in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

September 2013. Photo by: Prof. Dr. Norman Ali Bassam Khalaf-von Jaffa. https://www.flickr.com/photos/50022881@N00/10094782796 Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 176 – August 2019