Page 12 - Discover Israel Magazine - UK edition 2019

A young wild donkey
Sonathfearoraid to Eilat
Making the journey through the southern
part of the Arava, surrounded by herds
of rare animals roaming free, is an
unforgettable experience. Yotvata Hai-
Bar Nature Reserve is a one-of-a-kind
conservation centre, a must-visit site for
anyone making their way to holiday in
the southern tip of Israel - Eilat.
Yaacov Shkolnik
Photos: Doron Nissim
The scenery is spectacular. On
one side there are red mountains,
their granite rocks reddening with
the setting sun. On the opposite
end, the Negev mountains descend in a
series of sharp cliffs towards the Arava. In
the centre, among large Acacia trees and
African savannah landscapes, lies one of the
most special nature reserves in Israel: Yotvata
Hai Bar – a modern “Noah’s Ark” for biblical
animals and other rare animals on the brink
of extinction. Don’t expect a visit to a zoo, for restoring the population of Mediterranean
D I S C O V E R I S R A E L 12
the experience is very different. The animals
are contained in an area that extends over
approximately 7,900 acres, an enormous plot
of land for Israeli standard.
How did everything originate?
The animal kingdom that existed at the end
of the 19th century differs greatly from that
which we know today. Large herds of deer,
wild donkeys, ostriches and other animals
roamed the Negev. The use of firearms
eradicated many of them and brought other
species to the brink of extinction. The last
corpse of any ostrich living within Hai-Bar was Biblical Animals
found in the Arava in 1966.
In 1961, the “Hai-Bar” association was
founded, with the aim to create captive
breeding programmes for biblical animals
and release them into the country. Hai-
Bar was first established in the Carmel
mountains in the north with the goal of
animals, and in 1968, the nature reserve was
established. The Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature
Reserve, maintained by the Israel Nature and
Parks Authority, was founded here due to the
many Acacia trees, which create savannah-
like scenery because of the relatively large
abundance of natural pastures.
Over time, the reserve took on the breeding
of other endangered animals to return them
to their natural habitat. In the mid 1980’s,
a fenced perimeter was created around a
special plot of land (not within the area that
permits visitors) in order to protect the last
remaining population of Acacia gazelles – a
subspecies of wild deer living within the Arava.
Within the Hai-Bar reserve live 17 different
species of animals. Here you will find gazelles
of the Negev, a species that had been on the
brink of extinction until the 1970s. The gazelle
depends entirely on the Acacia trees in order
to survive. It has adapted to the dryness of the
desert and receives all of the water it needs
from the Acacia leaves. Another beautiful
animal you will find here is the Nubian Ibex,
which also almost disappeared from the
landscape, but was saved in the nick of time