All terrestrial animals were created on the sixth day. All were created to be herbivores (Gen. 1:30). After the Fall, sin and death entered into the world. All living things became corrupted (Gen. 6:13), bringing violence throughout the earth. This would include carnivory in the animal kingdom.

Only terrestrial mammals that had split hooves and also chewed their cud were considered clean. If they lacked either trait, they were unclean. Mammals with paws were unclean (Lev. 11:27).

Panthera leo, the lion, is mentioned numerous times in the Bible, both as a native predator in the Middle East and figuratively (in metaphor and prophesy). The former Asiatic subspecies has been subsumed into the African subspecies. The Bible uses several different words for young, mature, and elderly lions, as well as distinguishing the lioness. The lion is now extinct in Israel.

The Arabian leopard, Panthera pardus nimr, is all but extinct in Israel today.

Slifkin (2015) notes that it is possible that the cheetah and leopard were lumped together under a Hebrew term namer because of the similar spotting. The context for this verse suggests that speed is a primary trait for the animal noted, and that applies better to the Asiatic cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus venaticus (now extinct in Israel). Other uses of the word in Scripture better suit the leopard, above.

The Syrian brown bear, Ursus arctos syriacus, is now extinct in Israel. The Bible notes the dov as a danger to flocks, as well as the folly of robbing it of its cubs (Proverbs 17:12)

The Arabian wolf, a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), still exists in Israel. Today, there appears to be a good amount of genetic flow between the wolves, jackals, and feral dogs. The ze'ev was a common threat to shepherds in Biblical times.

This Hebrew word can refer to either foxes or jackals. In the story of Samson capturing 300 animals, it almost certainly refers to jackals. The golden jackal (Canis aureus) is still common in Israel.

There are four species of Vulpes in Israel, including the well-known red fox (Slifkin 2015).

The striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) can be found in Israel's desert regions. It is uncertain if it is mentioned specifically in the Bible, though some translations do use 'hyena' in passages referring to a 'howling creature' of the desert. The word tzavua may refer to it, and there are references to 'the valley of the tzevo'im' in 1 Samuel 13:16-18 (Slifkin 2015). It would certainly have been a well-known desert species. They are generally solitary, or live in pairs. One recent paper noted a striped hyena traveling with wolves in the southern Negev of Israel (Dinets and Eligulashvili 2016), suggesting that there may be occasional cooperation between the two species.

The wild boar (Sus scrofa), the precursor for pig domestication, is native to Eurasia and North Africa, featuring in the mythology of many ancient cultures in the region. Genetic research shows that the boar in Israel shares genetic haplotypes with European boar, unlike other Near Eastern populations. This indicates that Sea Peoples (particularly the Philistines) brought pigs with them when they migrated to Israel, which ended up crossing with native boar (Meiri et al. 2013).

Context, especially pairing the word with reference to the domestic ox, tells us that this animal was probably the wild cattle, or aurochs (Bos primigenius). Extinct since the early 1600s, the aurochs was native to Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Hope (1991) argued that this word likely meant the oryx, because at that time there was no evidence for aurochs surviving into the Biblical period. Now, however, we have zooarchaeological evidence that aurochs were in the Levant during the Bronze Age and (dwindling in numbers) the Iron Age (Tsahar et al. 2009; Marom et al. 2014).

The Syrian wild ass (Equus hemionus hemippus) is an extinct subspecies of onager that ranged across the Middle East. Two other subspecies of onager have since been reintroduced to the wilds of Israel. The Hebrew words arod and pere both appear to be used for the wild ass.

This word is readily identifiable and commonly used in the Old Testament referring to deer (Amar et al. 2011). There were several species during Biblical times, including the red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), and the Persian fallow deer (Dama dama mesopotamica). All deer were extirpated from Israel from overhunting and habitat loss (Slifkin 2015), but roe deer and fallow deer have been reintroduced in recent decades. Opher (לְעֹ֣פֶר) is used in the Song of Solomon, referring to young deer or fawns.

This is the other Hebrew word (sometimes rendered sebi) in the list of clean wild animals (along with 'deer,' above) which can be identified with some certainty. It refers to the gazelle. Slifkin (2015) notes that besides the two species found in Israel today (the mountain gazelle, Gazella gazella, and the dorcas gazelle, Gazella dorcas), a third species found in Jordan, the goitered gazelle (Gazella subguttorosa) may have been familiar to Biblical writers.

This is one of several uncertain words in the 'clean animals' list of the Dietary Laws, sometimes translated 'roebuck' or 'fallow deer.' Slifkin (2015) makes a case for the hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus), a distinctive antelope that formerly inhabited the Middle East and is now restricted to Africa. He points out that whether or not the hartebeest is actually referred to by this term, it almost certainly is one of the words in this list. Amar et al. (2011) notes "hartebeest remains are the third most abundant clean ungulate species at LB-PP sites."

Slifkin (2015) suggests that this uncertain word in the Dietary Laws may refer to the oryx. As a conspicuous inhabitant of Israel, it should certainly be on the list. The word may in fact be an umbrella term for both the oryx (Oryx leucoryx) and the addax (Addax nasomaculatus). While Israelites would have been familiar with the addax during their sojourn in Egypt, that species was not native to Israel.

Slifkin (2015) suggests that this is a second term for the aurochs (Bos primigenius), noted above under reem. This is mostly because there are Rabbinical arguments for the Dietary Laws list being exhaustive and the aurochs, being a clean animal, should be on the list. I very much doubt that the list is, in fact, exhaustive, but this is probably as good a possible candidate as any for identification purposes. It is not uncommon in folk biology for a species to have more than one name. (See akko/yael below.)

Two words in the Old Testament, akko and yael (יָעֵל, see Psalm 104:18), appear to reference the wild goat, or ibex (Capra nubiana) (Slifkin 2015). Ibex are well known for inhabiting the 'high hills' of the deserts.

This is yet another uncertain word in the Dietary Laws list of clean animals. Slifkin (2015) notes that a wild sheep would be appropriate for the list, though it is uncertain if mouflon (Ovis orientalis) or Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) lived in Israel when the Israelites returned from Egypt. Mouflon were in the Levant during the Pleistocene (Yeomans et al. 2017). Slifkin (2015) also notes an alternative identification that has been suggested for this word: the giraffe. Egyptians transported giraffes from East Africa via the Red Sea to ports throughout the Mediterranean, and there is evidence that giraffes were brought to the Levant. Outside of a few rabbinic challenges, most rabbinical investigations have agreed that the giraffe is kosher. (There just aren't many people interested in eating giraffes.)

There is a great deal of dispute over the identity of the land of Ophir (e.g., North 1965), and what exactly Solomon's and Hiram's ships brought back to Israel. Apes or monkeys are often rendered in translations, and Slifkin (2015) notes that kof also refers to monkeys in Arabic and Akkadian, among other languages in the region. Because the accompanying 'peacock' may or may not be a correct translation, their origins may have been Asia (India) or Africa. We do know primates were traded, possibly as far back as circa 2000 B.C. (Urbani and Youlatos 2020).

Without knowing exactly where Ophir was, we don't know if the ivory that was brought back to Israel was from Asian or African elephants.

The rock hyrax (Procavia capensis), rendered as 'coney' in some versions, is native to Africa and the Middle East. The Dietary Laws marked it, the shafan, as an unclean animal.

The Dietary Laws marked the hare (Lepus sp.), or arnevet, as unclean. The hares in Israel may be intermediate between the desert hare (L. capensis) and the European hare (L. europaeus) (Suchentrunk 2006); there has been discussion that the two species may comprise an interbreeding complex.

This is an unidentified creature that, along with Leviathan, is the climax of God's speech to Job. It appears to be a large, semi-aquatic (at least), herbivore.

Part of the covering of the tabernacle was to be made up of tahas. In some older translations this has been said to be badgers' skin, dugong's skin, or some other creature's hide. The badger identity appears to go back to a mistranslation by Martin Luther. Rather than being a type of unusual animal hide, though, it probably refers to craftwork (possibly dyed leather and/or decorated with beadwork) (Dalley 2000).