Shafaq News- Najaf/ Al-Muthanna

The desert stretching between Iraq's Najaf and Al-Muthanna provinces is one of the country's most important natural habitats, home to a wide range of wild animals and birds and a key stopover for migratory species.

Officials interviewed by Shafaq News warn that the area is under growing pressure from drought, water shortages, unregulated hunting, and the entry of vehicles and weapons into its natural terrain.

Jamal Abed Zaid Shalaka, director of Najaf's environment department, told Shafaq News that his department's natural ecosystems division has been surveying mammals and wild animals across the province's desert, agricultural, and rural areas to track biodiversity.

According to Shalaka, the most commonly recorded species include wild hares, hedgehogs, red foxes, golden jackals, wild rodents, and bats. Their spread and numbers, he explained, depend heavily on the availability of water, food, and vegetation cover, leaving them vulnerable to environmental change.

The province's desert and agricultural zones, along with waterways, provide habitats for reptiles and amphibians, including frogs, freshwater turtles, lizards, geckos, and snakes, he noted, adding that preserving these habitats — particularly wetlands and vegetation that provide food and shelter — is essential to protecting biodiversity.

"Najaf's environment department continues to enforce CITES, the international treaty regulating trade in endangered wild animals and plants, to curb illegal wildlife trafficking," Shalaka explained. The department monitors local markets and pet shops for CITES-listed species and carries out field visits, coordinating with security and regulatory agencies on any trafficking, possession, or transport violations involving protected animals. No confirmed cases of international trafficking in CITES-listed species have been recorded in the province, he added, though monitoring remains ongoing.

In Al-Muthanna province, environment department director Amir Kadhim al-Aridhi told Shafaq News that his department works with the Al-Muthanna police command and environmental police to protect wild animals and birds in Al-Samawa desert from unregulated hunting.

Available data, according to Al-Aridhi, points to several resident breeding bird species, alongside winter visitors, including the brown-necked raven, crested lark, Indian house crow, house sparrow, rock dove, great grey shrike, long-legged buzzard, and desert wheatear. "These species were identified through direct observation, photography, and a field guide to the birds of Iraq," he explained.

Protection efforts also cover migratory birds that use the Iraqi desert as a resting or breeding stopover, al-Aridhi noted, with the environment department coordinating with Al-Muthanna police for continuous patrols during migration seasons. Drought and the decline of water sources and vegetation, he added, have significantly reduced the number of migratory birds reaching the Samawa desert.

On species where hunting is banned, al-Aridhi pointed to the peregrine falcon, along with certain spiny-tailed lizards, foxes, and wolves, all of which are under protection. Iraq's Ministry of Environment, he explained, maintains an official list of animals whose hunting is prohibited under CITES annexes.

Protecting wild species goes beyond preventing international trade, he added, extending to monitoring hunting, possession, and transport, in coordination with security agencies to take legal action against violators.

Al-Aridhi further explained that hunting requires an official permit, with procedures including an entry-permit application and an inventory of vehicles, weapons, and equipment used. Permitted species include sandgrouse and quail, with the legal hunting season running from December 1 to February 1. Provincial police are responsible for monitoring hunting, in coordination with the environment department on enforcement campaigns and legal action against violators.

In an independent account, Ahmed Hamdan Jaber of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Group told Shafaq News that many wild birds and animals have gone extinct or become endangered in the Al-Muthanna desert and Iraq's wider desert regions, due to unregulated hunting and environmental depletion.

The great bustard, according to Jaber, was among the first birds to disappear from Iraq's environment, going extinct in the early 20th century, roughly between 1910 and 1915. The Arabian gazelle, known locally as the "reem," went extinct in the Samawa desert in 1974, he added, while the ostrich disappeared from Iraq's southern desert region entirely in 1945. Other species now considered endangered, he noted, include the Iraqi eagle, hoopoe, quail, sandgrouse, pigeons, wild hares, and jerboas, along with certain reptile species.

Jaber pointed to the entry of vehicles into desert areas and the spread of weapons among some herders and visitors, combined with unregulated hunting, as key factors adding pressure on wild animals and birds. The continuation of these practices, he warned, coupled with weak oversight in some areas, is depleting wild species and threatening the desert's natural balance.

Al-Muthanna's environment director acknowledged that his department currently lacks an updated survey of the numbers and types of wild animals and birds in the Samawa desert, citing a shortage of vehicles and funding needed to carry out field surveys, a gap that makes it difficult to determine how much wildlife populations have changed amid ongoing climate shifts and water scarcity.

Read more: Silent extinction: Iraq’s wildlife fades as water runs out