A common badger in the Negev/photo: Mark Katz, RTG
Nature Authority inspector Mark Katz was nearing the end of his work day yesterday (Tuesday) on a field inspection tour, when he suddenly realized that he was watching a rather rare spectacle and even managed to document it: a common badger ran in front of him in one of the nature reserves in the Arava.
"In all the 20 years that I have been a regional inspector, this is the first time for sure that I have had the privilege of seeing a common badger and even documenting it," says Mark Katz, inspector of the Negev Mountains. "Twice in the past I assumed that this was what I saw, but it was in the last light and only for a brief blink of an eye."
The common badger documented by Katz/Nature and Parks Authority, Mark Katz
Rare in the south
Nitzan Segev, a prairie ecologist at the Nature and Parks Authority, adds: "The common badger, as it is called, is found in the north of the country and in the center, but since it is nocturnal, unfortunately the encounters with it are mostly with over-exerted individuals. In recent years, it has been captured more and more by the lens of monitoring and surveillance cameras, which also operate At night. The inspector's current meeting with the badger took place at last light, when the badger begins its activity.
"Badgers are rare in the south of the country, out of 5,884 sightings reported in RTG's system, only 7 were reported south of the line of Mitzpe Ramon, each of them is a sighting in particular Solitary, in the Negev Mountain Nature Reserve, in the Large Rivers Nature Reserve and along the southern prairie to the outskirts of the city of Eilat, where it was last observed in 2022.
More on the same topic:
Animals
badger
the Negev