Along with the evacuation of residents of southern and northern Israel from their homes due to the "Iron Swords" war, the collection and evacuation of animals found in the combat zones also began.
Two of these animals are a pair of white-tailed eagles, a 21-year-old female and a 20-year-old male, who were transferred by the Nature and Parks Authority from the Hai-Bar Carmel Nature Reserve near Haifa to the Safari in Ramat Gan in order to transfer them to a safer place at this time.
Female eagle, photo: Hadas Groshka
Since it is not a simple task to relocate these birds of prey, which already lived on safari until 2020, to everyone's delight, the transfer operation to the raptor path on safari was a great success last week. Some of the caregivers who treated the couple in the past do so even now, which is a significant advantage for everyone, as they seem to be calm in their old-new (and temporary) residence and show no signs of stress even when the sounds of sirens and interceptions are heard.
Ohad Tzofa, a raptor ecologist at the Nature and Parks Authority, said: "From the day it was established, the breeding core of the 'Spreading a Wing' project has been based on the help and assistance of the zoos, because only through a joint effort can achievements be achieved – and this is also the case at this time, when nature values are in danger. In order not to 'concentrate all the eggs in one basket', we worked to disperse what might be damaged. Fortunately, as usual, the safari and biblical zoos immediately stepped up to the task. At the same time, RTG worked to carry out actions that would reduce the risk of damage from fires in the Hai-Bar Carmel reserve, and was also prepared with an emergency system to supply electricity to the necessary equipment of the breeding nucleus."
White-tailed eagles are the largest birds of prey in Israel that are not carcass-eaters. They form monogamous pairs that nest on tall trees and return to the same territory year after year. Until the middle of the 20th century, there were a number of nesting pairs in Israel, which is the southern limit of the species' distribution. At the beginning of 2022, their breeding in the wild in Israel was interrupted when the female of the last nesting couple was found dead as a result of poisoning in the Agamon Hula Nature Reserve, making the importance of these two individuals enormous – and therefore it was decided to evacuate them early.
Release of the pair of eagles on safari in Ramat Gan // Photo: Hadas Groshka
In order to try to return them to the Israeli wilderness, in the 70s the Nature and Parks Authority established a breeding nucleus in the Hai-Bar Carmel Nature Reserve that allows them to reproduce, nest and raise the chicks leisurely, until the age when they are ready to spread their wings and leave the nest, when they are released into the wild. At the moment, the nucleus includes the pair of eagles that came to the safari and another pair that is in the Zoological Garden in Tel Aviv, which will join the breeding core. So far, the duo is fulfilling their role faithfully, and two of their offspring have already been returned to the wild – one of them was even seen returning to Israel after a long migration and wandering north of Israel.
Eagles live in moist habitats that disappear from the landscapes of our country. They arrive in the country in autumn and stay throughout the winter until spring. When spring arrives and starts to warm up, they migrate north to Europe.
This species faces many dangers such as reduction and loss of wetlands, poisoning, electric shock, wind turbines, massive infrastructure on migration routes, deforestation and more. They feed mainly on large fish and can also hunt various species of prey and carrion such as fish carcasses, carcasses of marsh birds and small mammals.
The offspring were returned to the wild. Male Eagle // Photo: Hadas Groshka
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