Vertebrate pests damage to agricultural holdings in Palestine
Imadeddin Albaba
Humans and vertebrate pests have coexisted in different places including Palestine since thousands of years ago. Some vertebrate group populations compete with humans for resources, damage human's agricultural holdings either plantations or Animal production barns. This work is an attempt to prepare the first Checklist of vertebrate pests' damage to Agricultural holdings in Palestine. Our finding showed that twenty-five vertebrate species are reported to be of economic significance to the Palestinian agriculture sector, 17 of which are mammalian, 8 avian and 5 reptilian Species. The study showed that the most successful and applicable methods of control were the use of carbamate poisons like Temik, Lannate and Ro-Stop 90. and fences, where the percentages of using such methods were 47% and 34.3% for poisons and fences, respectively, while as using traps was much lower than other methods and their use did not exceed 2.8%.
Our finding showed that the damage parts or types were not only to orchard trees or field crops but also to other agricultural holdings, equipments; tools, such as irrigation pipes, plastic sheets etc. Our findings drove us to conclude that Vertebrate pests damage to agricultural holdings in Palestine, is due to a number of factors, ranging from natural habitat shrinking and urbanization encroachment, to Israeli segregation wall and the subsequent damage left behind its construction.