Swamp cat in Emek Hula/photo: Liron Shapira, Society for the Protection of Nature
Yesterday (Thursday) in the early evening in the Hula Valley, Liron Shapira, the nature conservation coordinator of the Society for the Protection of Nature in the North, documented a swamp cat that went on a night hunt and looked for prey among the bushes in the valley.
The swamp cat is one of the three species of wild cats that remained in Israel, after the extinction of the tigers, along with the caracal and the wild cat.
Swamp cats are medium in size: the female weighs 7-8 kg and the male 13-14 kg.
Their distribution is from East Asia to the Nile, and Israel is on the border of the westernmost distribution of this species.
Unlike other cats, the swamp cat likes to live in an environment of water and is adapted to it - short fur and relatively small feet with protruding pads, which allow it to move without slipping in mud and on smooth surfaces, a relatively short tail and camouflage colors.
One of the three remaining wild cat species in Israel.
The swamp cat yesterday in Emek Hula/The Society for the Protection of Nature, Liron Shapira
"the world keeps on turning"
"The Hula Valley is home to many wild animals and this is also the place where the largest population of swamp cats in Israel lives," explains Shapira.
"The valley is also monitored and researched by various means. Due to the security situation, there are few visitors in the valley and the main traffic in it is that of the farmers. I toured the fields after a few months of absence (reserve service in the IDF, among other things), the feeling was strange and the valley is very quiet.
I was lucky enough to meet at sunset some swamp cats that went on a night hunt.
For them - war or no war - the world is as usual."
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Animals
swamp cat
cats
Emek Hula