Pedang the Tiger Gets Acupuncture to Treat Chronic Ear Infection in Israel
After trying the conventional methods of trying to heal a sick tiger with a persistant ear infection, animal therapists were called into the zoo try some alternative methods.
New Petition Calls for End to Animal Cruelty in Saudi Arabia
A new online petition has been created to curtail animal cruelty in Saudi Arabia. It calls for ending the use of violence against animals for human pleasure and currently needs around 1200 signatures in order for the petition and letter to be sent to the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture.
Ancestors of Desert Camels Roamed the Arctic 3.5 Million Years Ago
An artist’s impression of the Arctic camel. Illustration by Julius Csotonyi via The Guardian Millions of years ago, the ancestor of modern-day camels once roamed the Arctic, according to scientists from the Canadian Museum of Nature. While working in Ellesmere, a cold and unforgiving place that lies within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Dr Natali Rybczynski [...]
Visiting Jerusalem’s Old Abused Mount of Olives Camel
This is how the camel looked back in February, 2012. Cold, wet and miserable Our stories on animal abuse have included severe abuse of circus animals in Lebanon, neglect and abuse of zoo animals in Egypt, and even rampant abuse of pigs in (supposedly) kosher Israel. Always considered as “silent victims” these animals have suffered severe [...]
Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki Says “Leave the Birds Alone”
If you’re looking for some light reading from the Middle East, something peppered with the region’s wit and satire, then look no farther than Abu Dhabi and Sultan Saeed al Darmaki, presently a businessman running the construction-based Al Darmaki group. He has published his first official book, entitled Leave the Birds Alone. It was a [...]
Giant Squid Kraken Sea Monster Caught on Video
The journal Nature reports that a team of ocean researchers have captured the world’s first video of a giant squid (Architeuthis dux) in its natural environment. The video was captured 700 meters (2300 feet) beneath the Pacific near the Ogasawara archipelago, about 1000 kilometers south of Tokyo Japan. The mission was funded by Japan’s NHK broadcasting [...]
Vegetarianism Can Save the Middle East
With 6 of the top 10 most obese countries located in the Middle East, maybe it is time to look at reducing our meat intake argues Joseph writing from Egypt There are always arguments for and against going vegan, and they are many, but for many in today’s world, going vegan is all about the [...]
Animal Abuse Horrific for Livestock Sent from West to Middle East Ports
Live export controversy hits Middle East with full force: Australia may be merciful when raising its cattle at home. That all changes once they head to the Middle East market. Animals and animal rights are not top on any agenda in the Middle East, but in 2012, a number of incidents brought the controversial live [...]
United Arab Emirates Celebrates 41 Years – at the Zoo
The Arab Gulf emirates celebrates National Day at the zoo until Dec 3. Come for a picnic and see the animals. Al Ain Zoo presents visitors with an exciting programme of events and activities in celebration of the 41st United Arab Emirates National Day. Visitors can also learn about the core of the UAE’s heritage [...]
Israeli Meat Fed With Feces and Pumped With Toxic Contaminants
It takes only 38 days to raise a chicken for slaughtering – not a very nice existence Eating meat products anywhere is under fire recently, including fears that humans are destroying the planet for beef. Even poultry products are under increased scrutiny, with all kinds of growth hormones, antibiotics, and even poisons like arsenic being [...]
Syria’s Cattle Caught in the Crossfire
Cash cows in a time of conflict smuggled between Syria and Jordan As Syria continues to be swept up in violence, Syrian farmers are smuggling their livestock (and themselves) into Jordan to sell the cattle before they can be killed in bombing raids. Traders near Jordan’s border with Syria estimate that tens of thousands of [...]
Field Notes from a Sharjah Desert Summer Trek
Early morning on a Saturday in May I headed out on my routine weekend nature trip into the desert. My visit was to a desert area in Sharjah that is approximately 25 kilometers away from Sharjah City and is an area I have been frequenting now for a few years. My trip goals were two-fold: [...]
Qatar’s City of Birds and Islam’s Teachings On Animals (INTERVIEW)
“In Qatar, the birds have built their own hidden city. They live in the towers and stairwells of an abandoned palace…” Over at Guernica Magazine, I stumbled across a beautiful short story by Autumn Watts who is a lecturer of writing at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. Evoking the hidden and unseen aspects of [...]
Safari Animals Get Blood, Fish and Fruit Popsicles to Cool Off
Safari animals in Israel get giant popsicles to help them beat the heat. The worldwide heatwave is also showing effects in the Middle East. To help its zoo and safari animals cool down, the Israel Ramat Gan Safari Zoo has started introducing popsicles into the diets of the animals. The popsicles cool down the body’s [...]
Grasshopper Stress Changes Local Environment
An Israeli research team discovers a mechanism whereby even tiny seemingly insignificant chemical changes in a creature can affect the ecology of the earth. Snakes, spiders and creepy-crawly things that go bump in the night are the creatures of children’s nightmares. But who ever thought that the little critters might actually be scared of each [...]
Peak Phosphorus Fuels the World’s Growing Bellyache
Whisked away down the toilet and into our waterways, we are losing stocks of phosphorus and the result can be very scary. Looking for something new to worry about? Phosphorus hops onto the list of rapidly diminishing natural resources: a dangerous dwindling of something that probably never crossed your mind. Production will likely peak in our [...]
Lab Monkeys in Israel Get Reprieve – For Now
A recent Israeli Supreme Court decision has temporarily barred the shipment of 90 monkeys to research labs in the United States. Mazor Farm, where the monkeys are being farmed, must now provide documentation proving it operates within Israel’s legal framework for captive animals. Many people imagine the typical Israeli farm as a peaceful, lush, agrarian [...]
Get Into Green Music and Art in Iraq Before Earth Day
Who would have thought that Iraqis and Kurds could start a green music and art event? Two non-profits, Nature Iraq and Development Now are holding the first Green Music and Arts Festival in Iraq tomorrow to honor Earth Day the day after. To be held in Sulaimani’s Azadi Park in Sulaimani, it will be the [...]
Israel Turns on the Tap in River So Endangered Fish Can Swim
Israeli ecologists are creating habitat to save the severely endangered fish Nemacheilus dori, which measures only two inches. The fate of a tiny endangered fish in Israel`s northern region may rest on whether ecologists can create additional aquatic habitat. The Nature and Parks Authority is working to save the fish, a hillstream loach, in Israel’s northern [...]
Termite Mounds Inspire Energy Neutral Buildings
Mr. Dubai, why not build your hotel like a termite would? Green Prophet has written many articles on green building, and the revival of beautiful earth architecture in the Middle East. Earth architecture is certainly a more sustainable and interesting alternative solution – for those lucky enough to own some rural land, but can buildings [...]
Put a Zebra in Your Tank: A Chemical Crapshoot?
Making alcohol from sugars is easy; maybe the third oldest profession in the world. Making butanol from zebra droppings is another story. Processors have made ethanol from cornstarch and sugar for decades, but using food products to make biofuel raises demand for staple commodities like corn and seed oils with disastrous impact to the food [...]
Water Pollution in Israel Threatens People, Animals, Plants
Lead and other pollutants are seeping into Israeli drinking water at alarming levels. Lutra numbers decimated; human health at risk. Water pollution in Israeli lakes, streams and groundwater aquifers is reaching alarming levels. Although the country has regulations in place to prevent discharges, including a comprehensive Water Law, contamination is commonplace. And now scientists are [...]
Egypt’s Red Sea Sharks Face Extinction
The Arab Spring in Egypt has been a failure for sharks. Since last year’s political uprising, and consequent deterioration of law enforcement, poachers supplying restaurants with illicit shark fins have driven the Red Sea shark population down by as much as 80 percent, reports Egypt Independent. In 2006, laws prohibiting trading in sharks were passed, [...]
Cellular Phones, WiFi and Bee Collapse? Israeli Bee Boss Not Buying It
Bee colony collapse disorder is a worldwide phenomenon decimating bee colonies worldwide. Bees, you see, are pretty important. Without them much of our food can’t be pollinated. And the true reason why America lost about one third of its bees last year is largely unknown. Some believe it’s because there is lack of pollen as [...]
Hunting for Fossil Rock in the Arabian Desert
Ajmal spends his weekends scouting for animals and life in the desert. Here is his trip to Fossil Rock. I’ve always known that much of the Arabian peninsular mountains, especially those in the United Arab Emirates and Oman were at one point in time, millions of years ago, under the ocean. The Tethys sea to [...]
2nd International Ornithology Festival in the Galilee
Looking for a cool eco-activity with the kids this Hanukkah vacation? This one is for the birds! Until December 28th, you can visit nature reserves and parks in the Galilee and Golan for a special bird-watching festival. The events will be held in six main sites: the Agamon Hula, the Gamla nature reserve, at the [...]
Biblical Hyrax Is Now A Pest
The hyrax are cute to some, and pests to others. Photos by Arik Kershenbaum They are considered as cute little critters to some people, and they have been around since at least biblical times. But nowadays, like other animals that are classified as pests – like jellyfish during the summer months, or wild boar that [...]
Crocodiles and Ostriches Outlawed For Skin and Meat in Israel
Ostrich steaks on the “hoof”? Not at Israel’s Yotvata Hai Bar wildlife refuge Is it right to raise what should be wild animals for use as leather goods or exotic food menu items in offbeat theme restaurants? These issues came to the forefront recently in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper: private “farms” are raising African crocodiles for [...]
Extinct Hula Painted Frog Hops Back to Life
Like the Dead Sea scrolls of nature, an extinct frog from Israel returns to life Considered extinct for about 50 years, the Hula painted frog was spotted last week in Israel by a nature parks warden out monitoring the birds. The Hula Valley was covered in DDT and drained decades ago to stop the spread [...]
From Pickled Song Birds to Snakes at Risk
This Cyprus grass snake is now an endangered species First a severe water crisis threatened to create a dire peril to both people and animals in Cyprus. Then we revealed a crisis gripping the island’s song bird population with over one million songbirds killed to make a popular pickled food dish. Now the common Cyprus grass [...]
Name this Baby Orphaned Gazelle
His mother passed away at birth. Now zookeepers at the Al Ain Zoo in Abu Dhabi are asking the public to give this baby gazelle a name. No Splashypants please! Remember Mr. Splashypants the whale that was named during an online Greenpeace campaign? Like it or not, that’s what voters chose for the whale now [...]
Urban Beehive So You Can Make Healthy Honey at Home
Philips has created a plastic, urban beehive. Honey, I am home! When I told my husband that I want to build an urban beehive on the roof, he thought I’d flown the coop. It’s enough that we have 15 chickens running around the urban homestead. Bees sting, he reminded me. I, like many other “informed” [...]
You’re Invited To The Jungle Ball!
Kuwait’s animal rights society is hosting a jungle-themed ball and art auction to raise awareness of the plight of animals in the country The Middle East doesn’t exactly have a great reputation when it comes to animal rights and, in some way, you can understand why. Here at Green Prophet we have covered stories including [...]
Middle East Meat Consumption Rises With World Demand
Rising meat demand, rising risks in the Middle East: antibiotics, meat glue and global warming. World meat consumption is on the rise and this is despite increase awareness of the health risks of eating refrozen meat sold as “freshly cut”, and the dangers of eating an enzyme called transglutaminase otherwise known as “meat glue”. A [...]
In Remotest Anatolia, Lone NGO Speaks Up On Nature’s Behalf
Çağan Şekercioğlu founded ecological research and conservation NGO KuzeyDoğa in 2007 to promote biodiversity and resist environmental degradation in Turkey’s fast-developing eastern region. As thermal power plants and hydroelectric dams pop up more and more across Turkey’s landscape, the effects of these developments on the natural environment go largely unseen. Especially in Turkey’s rural, lightly [...]
Rare 90-Year-Old Sea Turtle Spared from Egyptian Supper
Turtles were considered evil in ancient Egypt. Locals apparently still haven’t forgot. Human desire for the rare and exotic repast knows no boundaries. And while most Middle Easterners are happy eating domesticated animals such as the cow, and chicken, there are no limits on what they are willing to eat, and offer for dinner. Just [...]
DNA Tracking and Nuclear Beef Contamination in Japan
“Fukushima cows” starving to death – but some got shipped to the meat markets. Revelation that some 84 Japanese beef cattle shipped to markets in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan may be contaminated with radiation may not have happened had the exposed cattle been genetically “profiled” by a new DNA tracing process being developed by [...]
Jellyfish Attack on Israel Power Plant A Clear Sign of Global Warming?
New Mediterranean jellyfish invasions are causing big problems for coastal power plants Ever since new species of jellyfish, such as one known as Marvigaria Stellata began to appear in the Mediterranean, numerous warnings have been issued by media sides concerning this “plague” that is getting worse. Some say this partially being attributed to global warming. [...]
Stray Pups Cooked Alive in China
Hot dog! Puppy gets cooked alive. Animal cruelty at its worst! Examples of cruelty towards animals are easy to find these days where in the Middle East stray dogs getting shot on sight in Beirut Lebanon, and there is abuse towards animals imported for circus performances. The most cruelty to animals, to man’s best friend, [...]
Iran Plans To Launch Monkey Into Space
Monkeys and other mammals have long been sacrificed to enable humans to explore space. Iran is going to send a monkey into space to prepare for the country’s plan to send a man on a similar journey by 2020. After successfully launching its Rassad-1 satellite 162 miles into space this past week, the head of [...]