[1] Israel Aharoni was born in Vidzy, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire (in present-day Belarus).

His father, Avraham Yossef Aharonovich, was the Rosh yeshiva of Vidzy and died before his son Israel was born.

At the age of 13, Israel ran away from his home to Prague, where he attended school and later on continued to learn zoology at Charles University.

[3][4] Aharoni discovered 30 previously unknown species of animals, insects and birds, and is credited with giving them Hebrew names.

Together with a Syrian guide named Georgius Khalil Tah'an, Aharoni managed to discover a nest containing a female and eleven young in the Aleppo region.