War detonations destroy rock hyrax habitats

Repeated large-scale detonations across southern Lebanon are destroying ancient limestone habitats critical for the survival of the Syrian rock hyrax. According to Hisham Younes, founder and president of the environmental organization Green Southerners, these military actions are fragmenting the landscape and raising serious ecological concerns for the species, locally known as tabsoun.

Green Southerners has monitored rock hyrax colonies for years. The group reports that many known habitats have disappeared beneath bombings and demolitions over recent months. For example, on 30 April, footage from Israeli army social media showed a massive detonation targeting the Bayada neighborhood. Explosions in Bayada and nearby Naqoura that day were reportedly powerful enough to be seen and heard in Tyre, over six miles north, directly affecting an area hosting at least one colony.

Habitat fragmentation from explosions

Satellite imagery from 26 June shows extensive alteration to landscapes around Majdal Zoun, where colonies were previously documented. Similar large-scale destruction has been inflicted on the surroundings of Qantara. While the status of these colonies requires field verification, the fragmentation of their habitat is a major threat. Studies indicate powerful explosions can destabilize fragile karst formations through shock waves and ground vibration, causing fractures, collapses, and blocked subterranean refuge systems.

Large-scale demolition has two major environmental consequences. First, repeated blasting generates post-blast gases like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, rock dust, particulate matter, and potentially residual explosive compounds. In permeable karst landscapes, these contaminants can spread rapidly through interconnected fractures, caves, and groundwater.

Second, blast waves and structural collapse can alter cave humidity, airflow, and temperature. This damages habitats for cave-dwelling and rock-dependent fauna. Such changes have severe implications for species like the rock hyrax, which depends on stable rocky shelters for thermoregulation, reproduction, and predator avoidance.

Broader ecological pressures

Across monitored areas, many under Israeli occupation, habitats face unprecedented pressure. Repeated bombardment, fires, detonations, and vegetation burning have transformed landscapes. Hills are fractured, valleys burned, and rocky escarpments destabilized. Burned areas, craters, and rubble fragment habitats region-wide.

Habitat fragmentation can isolate colonies and weaken connectivity in already fragile environments. Recent assessments of wartime environmental damage in southern Lebanon identify such fragmentation and the creation of ecological barriers disrupting wildlife movement, including for the rock hyrax.

Damage to vegetation is another overlooked factor. Rock hyraxes rely on low shrubs and sparse coastal plants for food. Heavy bombardment and fires destroy this vegetation and may leave residues that alter soil quality. Also, white phosphorus is present in some smoke-screening shells used by the military. Green Southerners fears burning fragments or residues may enter the fissures and crevices used as refuges by hyraxes and other fauna.

Challenges in assessment and response

Assessing direct and indirect damage to colonies remains difficult without access to affected areas for comprehensive field surveys. This uncertainty extends to colonies documented before the war in Naqoura, Bayada, on slopes near Beaufort Castle, and in Wadi Majdal Zoun and Wadi Zebqine, all subjected to heavy bombing.

While the International Union for Conservation of Nature has described the regional subspecies as relatively stable, Lebanon has no official nationwide population assessment. The absence of recent field surveys makes evaluating trends difficult.

The ecological consequences may extend beyond a single species. A report from Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research notes biodiversity loss can occur through wildlife mortality, species displacement, and breakdown of ecological interactions like pollination. The disappearance of local hyrax colonies would signal the deterioration of whole ecological systems.

When contacted for comment by the Guardian, the Israel Defence Forces stated it uses smoke-screening shells containing white phosphorus, which it says are lawful and used to create smoke screens, not to strike targets or cause fires. The IDF said, "The IDF is aware of the potential environmental impacts of its activities in the area and takes measures to minimise harm to the environment." It added that operational activity is directed solely against military targets and is conducted with consideration for the surrounding environment.

The full ecological cost of the conflict cannot yet be measured. Reconstructing geological systems and ecological communities that evolved over thousands of years will prove far more difficult than rebuilding homes.