Exclusive, Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia ( Environment & Development magazine)

Northern Syria, 1 June 2015

 

Islamic State (IS) released yesterday on social media four photos of what it described as Palmyra Zoo. The footage was accompanied by a caption which read "animals of the Palmyra Zoo under IS custody," with no further details.

 

While two of the photos showed peacock and ostriches, the other two showed Syria's rarest animal species, sand gazelles and Arabian oryx, which used to breed in Talila wildlife reserve, 30 km southeast of Palmyra.

 

For those familiar with the region, it was clear that the photos were taken inside Palmyra city, which was captured by IS on 20 May. It seems that those responsible for the Talila reserve were forced to transfer few couples of the rare oryx and gazelle cattle into a fenced siege in Palmyra when clashes intensified, days before Palmyra city itself fell into the hands of IS.

 

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies sand gazelle as endangered species. It was extinct in Syria until 1996, when 30 gazelles, brought from Jordan, were introduced for breeding in Talila reserve. Gazelle cattle in the reserve reached about 700 in 2010.

 

Arabian oryx, classified by IUCN as vulnerable species, was reintroduced to the Syrian steppe also in 1996, thanks to a Jordanian gift of eight oryxes. Each oryx in the reserve was tagged and named. The overall number of oryxes in Syria was 155 in September 2010.

 

Reserve authorities released dozens of Gazelles and few couples of oryxes in Toul Al-Aba and Marj al-Sultan reserves in 2010. However, both reserves are now located in battle zones, as the first is in ar-Raqa area, controlled by IS, while the second is in Damascus countryside that witnesses clashes between the Syrian army and the armed rebels.

 

Arabian oryx and sand gazelle are native to Palmyra desert. One famous monument in al-Lat Goddess temple in Palmyra depicts a lion protecting an oryx. On the left leg of the lion, a Palmyran script states "the Goddess blesses that who doesn't shed blood in her temple."

 

It seems that wildlife became the latest subject of controversy in the Syrian conflict. Last week, BBC published on its news portal an item entitled "IS threat to Syria's northern bald ibis near Palmyra", claiming that the last members of a colony of the rare bird disappeared from Palmyra when it fell in the hands of IS last month. Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia magazine was fast to refute this claim, confirming that "the ibis colony in Palmyra had already disappeared in 2014". Later, Gianluca Serra, the Italian explorer who led the discovery of the Ibis colony and initiated the reserve in Palmyra, agreed with Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia confirming that "the northern bald ibis is extinct in the Middle East - but we can't blame it on IS" as the bird vanished many months ago, for reasons not related to the armed conflict.