Camels have always been the main livestock on which the Arabs depended on their nomadic lives. Without camels, the Bedouins could not have been far from human drinking water sources, relying on camel milk to go deep into the desert for months. Camels provide meat, clothing, fuel (feces), means of transport, and animal power to carry water and pull plows. Now, the role of camels as a means of transportation has been completely replaced by four-wheel drive vehicles. Today, camels are mainly raised as livestock.
In the local area, sheep and goats are abundant, but most of them are raised in small groups and are not grazed on a large scale. The Arabian horse is an extinct animal in the Arabian Peninsula, but is now bred in many countries. Many Bedouins had fast-running Saluki dogs, and falcons were hunted.
Overhunting has led to a sharp reduction in antelope populations, leaving only a few antelopes in the last habitat of the RubHali Desert, and highland goats rare. In addition, other large wild animals are mainly hyenas, wolves, jackals, etc., and small animals are mainly foxes, honey badgers, rabbits, hedgehogs, jerboas and so on.
In the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, there is a deadly desert snake called the horned viper, and the other is the Indian cobra. Lizards include desert monitor lizards and small stone dragons that haunt the sand. Ostriches have begun to disappear, eagles, vultures and owls are still common, and falcons are often used to hunt small numbers of spotted doves. Seabirds such as red storks, pelicans and egrets are often found in coastal areas.
There are plenty of sharks and sardines off the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Whales occasionally enter the Persian Gulf. With the exception of the high altitude areas and Dhofar, red dates are grown almost everywhere, and coconut trees grow along the coast of Dhofar. The main cereals are wheat, sorghum, barley and millet.
But rice is rarely grown locally. A few places, such as Abyan near the Gulf of Aden, are suitable for cotton cultivation. Arabs generally prefer fruits to vegetables, especially watermelons, pomegranates and dates. There is a place on the Arabian Peninsula called Brimi, which is famous for producing mangoes. In addition, the Arabian Peninsula produces figs, grapes, bananas, fairy fruits and other fruits, and citrons and Javan almonds are also rich in oases.
Unlike other islands, there are almost no trees on the Arabian Peninsula. A cluster of juniper pines in the southwest highlands is a bit like a real wood. Drought-tolerant tamarix is often planted in rows on the Arabian Peninsula to prevent quicksand erosion. The leaves, known as "Hem", contain enough salt to meet one percent of the camel's needs. The perennial tough plants here, like the annual tender plants moistened by the spring and winter rains, are very beneficial to human survival.
The Arabian Peninsula is located at 13 to 20° north latitude, and the Tropic of Cancer runs through it. It has a tropical desert climate with a dry and hot climate and a strong continental nature. The average annual temperature is above 20 °C, and the maximum temperature can reach 50 ~55 °C, which is one of the hottest regions in the world, and the average temperature in cold months is mostly between 15 and 24 °C. The average annual precipitation in most areas is less than 100 mm, and the northern winter is affected by the Mediterranean climate, and the annual precipitation can reach about 200 mm.
In the Highlands of Yemen and the southern coastal pre-mountain plains, affected by the air currents and topography of the Indian Ocean, the annual precipitation in summer can reach 500 to 1000 mm. As a result, the desert in the middle of the peninsula is widely distributed, and there are large grasslands around the desert. Only in the coastal plains in front of the mountains and inland low-lying areas with high water table, there are narrow or sporadic oases, irrigation agriculture and animal husbandry are more developed, and the population is relatively concentrated.
Larger oases include the narrow plains along the Yemeni highlands, the Al-Ahsa oasis centered on Hofuf, and the Kharji oasis centered on Riyadh. These oases are rich in dates. The southern coastal plains are rich in tropical crops such as coffee, rubber and mango.
The Arabian Peninsula is tropical, with strong solar radiation, controlled by tropical continental air masses all year round, surrounded by tall mountainous plateaus and hot areas. It is rarely affected by damp air masses in the ocean. As a result, the tropical arid climate here is very continental, hot, dry and rainy.
In terms of economic value, oil can be said to be a mineral resource that can bring great benefits. The Arabian Peninsula has the largest oil reserves in the world. The Persian Gulf coast is rich in oil and has the title of "World Oil Sea".
In addition to Yemen's mineral deposits, Arab oil fields are in the same huge alluvial basin as those in Iran and Iraq. Although Iran discovered oil in 1908, it was not until 1932 that the first oil field was discovered in Bahrain, on the Arab side of the basin.
Since then, extensive exploration has begun in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula and soon penetrated deeper into the interior. Although the oilfield has a large amount of associated natural gas, it still requires huge investments if it is commercialized. One part of the gas is liquefied for domestic consumption and export, while the other part is re-injected into the oil aquifer for storage and maintaining the oil production pressure.
Today, Arab countries are also struggling to diversify their economies, with the discovery of iron ore in The Northern Hanz and Nejd. Other resources of the Arab States include barite, gypsum, salt, lime for cement, clay for lime and pottery, quartz sand for glassmaking and shale, marble and building stone, some of which are already under development.
Oyster farms in the Persian Gulf produce pearls, and pearl mining was once a wealthy and lucrative profession. Bahrain is a major centre for pearl mining. Since 1931, the arab pearl trade has declined due to the global economic downturn, competition from Japanese pearl farming, and labor migration to high-paid and low-wage labor jobs.
Water scarcity and soil infernity hamper the development of agricultural export trade in Arab countries. Some countries have made progress in improving irrigation systems and expanding arable land, and some countries export fruit.