Wildlife of Israel

The wildlife of Israel includes the flora and fauna of Israel, which is extremely diverse due to the country's location between the temperate and the tropical zones, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the desert in the east. Species such as the Syrian brown bear and the Arabian ostrich have become extinct in Israel due to hunting and loss of habitat. As of May 2007, 190 nature reserves have been established in Israel.

Israel contains a variety of mammals due to its geographical and climatic diversity. For many of the mammals, Israel is the border of their territory. The territories of species which originate in the Palearctic generally stop at the deserts and those who originate from the African deserts usually stop at the Mediterranean coasts. Most of the mammals in Israel are of a Palearctic origin and about a tenth of the mammals are endemic to its general area. The Land of Israel once contained a variety of mammals, however in recent times many mammals such as the European water vole, the cheetah and the Caucasian squirrel went locally extinct. In the modern age many mammal populations such as the Arabian leopard and the sand cat are in a high risk of extinction. In total there are 57 species of mammals which are endangered (as of 2002) out of the total 104 species. The largest living predator in Israel is the Arabian leopard and its population too is endangered. There are 33 species of bats in Israel (as of 2002), the most species out of the ten mammalian orders currently in Israel, most of which are insect-eaters. Researchers from Tel Aviv University found 12 species of bat living in old army outposts in the Jordan Valley.

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