(December 7) - At the Hai-Bar Yotvata, ecologists are
working to restore indigenous animals to the Negev hills,
recreating a biblical landscape.
 On
the walls of an ancient temple outside Eilat, a unicorn is
painted again and again. But outside, in the barren reddish-brown
desert of the Negev, there is nary a one to be seen. Except
of course, for the herbivorous antelope at the Hai-Bar Yotvata
nature reserve, whose two straight, sharp horns merge into
one in profile. These antelopes, known as the Arabian oryx
(Oryx leucoryx), disappeared from the local landscape at
the turn of the century, as people began to hunt wild animals
with live ammunition. The onager, the ostrich and the African
wild ass also disappeared - their exit subsequently shrinking
the population of desert predators such as wolves and carrion-eating
birds.
That is, until the Nature Reserves Authority established
Hai-Bar Yotvata in 1964, and went to work breeding the long-gone
animals to reestablish them in their original habitat. Today
there are 80 oryx, along with several dozen ostriches and
onagers, on the savanna-like reserve, where acacia trees
offer their leaves, flowers and fruits to the hungry animals.
But the natural feed is supplemented with vegetation distributed
by tractor - otherwise the reserve could find itself stripped
in a few months, a nature-reserve employee notes drily.
An elderly male oryx sits far from the herd, thrown out
by a younger, stronger descendant. Females wander about,
some with bellies round with young; the males lie in the
sand, their heads down and horns outstretched, forming a
star-like shape. In the distance, the reddish-brown, bare
and impressive mountains of the Arava beckon - the silence
occasionally broken by a passing car.
 Stalking
around the oryx herd are dozens of ostriches - the males
proudly sticking out their red necks as they pace the reserve's
fence, marking out their territory and searching for a mate.
Piles of ostrich eggs that never hatched lay under trees.
While 36 oryx were released in 1996, and the Asian wild
ass (onager) in 1968 - not enough research has been done
to allow the ostriches to be released into the desert at
large. Much of the area's once-barren land is now settled,
and not much is known about the effect of agriculture run-offs
on the birds. But a guide talks enthusiastically about the
reintroduction of a herd of the Arabian oryx to the area
near Ein Shahak. The herd is marked and followed by both
a satellite and radio waves. There have been several births,
but it is too early to say whether the reintroduction has
been successful, says Bella Diamant, who works at Hai-Bar.
Onagers were reintroduced to the Negev in 1982 and then
again in 1992 and can be spotted congregating around water
sources in the Ramon Crater and Nahal Paran in the summer.
There are many still roaming the reserve as well - keeping
to sex-segregated groups. One female onager - introduced
to the wild with a herd that subsequently ostracized her
- made her way back to Yotvata from Mitzpe Ramon, only to
be rejected by the other females on the reserve. She took
to a herd of males - but every pregnancy that followed has
been spontaneously aborted.
 If
truth be told, the onager is actually an import - flown to
Israel from Iran in 1968. At the time, environmentalists
chose the species as being the closest to the Syrian wild
ass that once roamed the Negev hills.
Living alongside his Asian brother is the African wild ass,
mentioned in the Book of Job as an animal that can be domesticated
- the forefather of the modern-day donkey. The species is
extremely rare, both in nature and captivity. Lengthy pregnancies
and high sensitivity make reproduction difficult for the
African ass - at one point too much inbreeding was suspected.
Because of its rarity, African wild asses won't be romping
freely in the desert any time soon. One guide noted that
despite constant efforts by the Hai-Bar, the species is still
at risk of disappearing entirely.
The late Uri Tsion and Avraham Yoffe organized Hai-Bar with
the objective of rehabilitating populations of wild animals
that had disappeared from the area, and to bolster endangered
populations. Later, the Nature Reserves Authority assumed
responsibility for the Hai-Bar and in 1964 fenced in the
16,000-dunam area in the Yotvata salt marsh.
In the reserve, animals are propagated and marked, and their
genetic make-up, health and social status are studied. Based
on these findings, the staff chooses the herd that will be
restored to the wild. Watching the animals cavorting in their
natural habitat, with the hills of Jordan in the distance,
it takes just a bit of imagination and a touch of belief
to fancy yourself back in the time of Abraham. |
