Flora and fauna in the Golan:
Golan has a wide variety of wild and domestic animals: Wild animals are found in different categories:
1-Mammals :
a- Rodents: like rabbits, rats, and mice.
b-Meat eaters: like Jackals, foxes, wolves, hyenas, wild dogs, etc….
c-Insect eaters: like mole rats and porcupines.
d-Hoofed Mammals like gazelles which are few and subject to extinction, wild pigs whose numbers are decreasing.
2-Reptiles: chameleons, lizards , snakes and pythons .
3-Birds: Golan is very rich with birds of different categories: a-Domestic birds: churrs and partridges are usually found in large numbers. Hunting reduced their numbers to the extent of extinction. b-Migrating birds: like ducks, mongoose, wild pigeons, mallards, storks etc. They usually come to the Golan in spring and in the fall. c-Transit birds: like flamingos, cranes, and prey birds such as owls and sparrow hawks. Many regulations were issued to ban hunting in order to protect these species and the environment as well.

Flora in the Golan. Mediterranean flora in the Golan is represented by oak, myrtle berries ,laurel and wild olive trees which usually grow in the valleys. Nabk trees (with yellow and red fruit) and cactus represent the tropical plants in the Golan . Lime trees grow in thick groves in the Jordan valley. Forests of this valley have Euphrates poplar and Jasmine. Both are very well known aromatic trees. A long list of trees were brought to the Golan from different parts of the world : walnut trees from Persia, eucalyptus from Australia, Pomegranates were brought from Africa, red berries were imported from India and black berries from the Caucasus .
Citron trees are highly productive in the Yarmouk valley, particularly in Hamma. The Arab historian al Masoudi said in 300 H. that they were imported from India. 1-Forests: Forests of the Golan are rich with oak, gallnut, turpentine, wild damson, wild apricot ,wild almonds and damson plum trees. Forests are found in the western side of the Golan which is open to the sea and which has a long rainy season , six months a year. Forests in the Golan cover 18128 acres, this is equal to %9 of the total area. In Breqa and Bir Ajam forests cover 3500 acres where as on the south eastern slope of Mt. Hermon forests cover 2050 acres in the villages of Majdal shams, Jubbata al Khashab, Tranjeh and Jubbata al Zeit. In 1981 Forests Authority planted an area of 161 acres with pine, cypresses and eucalyptus trees.
2-Meadows:
Green grass is permanent all the year round, and covers most of the unforested parts of the Golan. Few weeks after the start of spring a green cover, with a wide range of plants, grow quickly to look like a real meadow . After rainy seasons plants grow to the height of 50 c.m.. Of these plants :chamomile, couch grass ,red anemone ,mint and others.

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