Elephant habitat, use and extinction history in the canaan region (Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Syria): A zoological and forestry survey
Paper Details
Elephant habitat, use and extinction history in the canaan region (Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Syria): A zoological and forestry survey
Abstract
This study examines the historical presence, ecological functions, and extinction of elephants in the Canaan region, encompassing modern-day Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, through an interdisciplinary zoological and forestry-based survey. Drawing on archaeological records, paleontological findings, historical texts, and ecological reconstructions, the research explores how elephants once inhabited and shaped the Levantine landscapes. The paper examines their role as keystone herbivores, their integration into regional cultures through trade, warfare, and symbolism, and their eventual disappearance due to climatic shifts, deforestation, and anthropogenic pressures. Cultural memory of elephants, preserved in religious scriptures and place names, offers insights into human–animal relations and the ecological consciousness of ancient societies. The study highlights how lessons from the extinction of elephants can inform current biodiversity strategies, forest management, and conservation outreach in the Levant. It also proposes future research directions, including ecological rewilding, public education, and regional conservation collaboration. By contextualising elephants within the broader environmental history of the region, the study underscores the importance of integrating lost megafauna into modern ecological narratives.
Al-Tabari. 1987. The history of al-Tabari, Volume I: General introduction and from the creation to the flood (F. Rosenthal, Trans.). State University of New York Press. (Original work published c. 915 CE)
Bar-Yosef O. 1998. The Natufian culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of agriculture. Evolutionary Anthropology 6, 159–177.
Faith JT. 2014. Late Pleistocene and Holocene mammal extinctions on continental Africa. Earth-Science Reviews 128, 105–121.
Goren-Inbar N, Sharon G, Melamed Y, Kislev ME. 2002. Nuts, nut cracking, and pitted stones at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99, 2455–2460.
Haynes G. 1991. Mammoths, mastodonts, and elephants: Biology, behavior, and the fossil record. Cambridge University Press.
Langgut D, Almogi-Labin A, Bar-Matthews M, Faershtein G, Weinstein-Evron M. 2011. Vegetation and climate changes over the last 5,600 years in the southern Levant, based on palynological records. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 3960–3972.
Lister AM, Stuart AJ. 2008. The impact of climate change on large mammal distribution and extinction: Evidence from the last glacial/interglacial transition. Comptes Rendus Geoscience 340, 615–620.
Littman RJ. (2009). Elephants and kings in the Hellenistic Levant. Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 18, 101–115.
Ripple WJ, Newsome TM, Wolf C, Dirzo R, Everatt KT, Galetti M, Hayward MW, Kerley GIH, Levi T, Lindsey PA, Macdonald DW, Malhi Y, Painter LE, Sandom CJ, Scholes RJ, Van Valkenburgh B. 2015. Collapse of the world’s largest herbivores. Science Advances 1, e1400103.
Stuart AJ. 1991. Mammalian extinctions in the Late Pleistocene of northern Eurasia and North America. Biological Reviews 66, 453–562.
Surovell TA, Waguespack NM, Brantingham PJ. 2005. Global archaeological evidence for proboscidean overkill. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102, 6231–6236.
Tchernov E. 1987. The biogeographical history of the southern Levant. In Y. Yom-Tov and E. Tchernov (Eds.), The zoogeography of Israel: The distribution and abundance at a zoogeographical crossroad. Dr. W. Junk Publishers p. 159–250.
Wroe S, Field J, Fullagar R, Jermin LS. 2013. Megafaunal extinction in the late Quaternary and the global overkill hypothesis. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 37, 327–353.
Zohary M. 1973. Geobotanical Foundations of the Middle East. Vols. I–II. Gustav Fischer Verlag.
Khandaker Mursheda Farhana, Kazi Abdul Mannan (2025), Elephant habitat, use and extinction history in the canaan region (Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Syria): A zoological and forestry survey; JBES, V26, N5, May, P98-105
https://innspub.net/elephant-habitat-use-and-extinction-history-in-the-canaan-region-jordan-israel-lebanon-and-syria-a-zoological-and-forestry-survey/
Copyright © 2025
By Authors and International
Network for Natural Sciences
(INNSPUB) https://innspub.net
This article is published under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0