Thursday, December 16, 2010

Wildlife of Ramat Bet Shemesh


Ramat Bet Shemesh, where I live, is home to many immigrants from the US who are often terrified at reports of wildlife entering the city from the adjacent hills at night. Fear not! The only dangerous intruders are of the two-legged variety.

If you see any of the local fauna making a visit, count yourself lucky to have such a special experience! There are foxes, jackals, hedgehogs and mongooses that come in frequently, and I once came across a (dead) striped hyena just outside Ramat Bet Shemesh. All these animals are entirely harmless (unless rabid) and are usually terrified of people. Snakes and scorpions can be deadly, but they make every effort to avoid people. Lizards are entirely harmless, and easy to identify - slow moving lizards with bulging eyes are chameleons, and the pale lizards barking and scampering on the walls at night are geckos.

There are also the four deer situated on the traffic circle outside Beis Tefilah, affectionately named Prancer, Dancer, Dasher and Rudolph by the locals. In fact, these are not reindeer, and nor are they the Israeli deer (Mesopotamian fallow deer); rather, they are European red deer, similar to the American elk. I don't know why they are in Ramat Bet Shemesh.

The most exotic wildlife can be found in the Pinat Chai in my garden. People are welcome to peer in by climbing on the wall along the steps connecting Nachal Shimshon to Nachal Raziel. Look out for Billy Bob and Mary Jane, my two huge iguanas, generously sponsored for the benefit of the community by Paul Shaviv of Toronto and other people (please let me know if you'd like to be named). There's more wildlife and wonders inside my house, but for that, you'll have to reserve the Zoo Torah Family Experience - $100 for one hour for groups of up to twelve people.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah. The two-legged variety:

Arabis Burglaris

E-Man said...

Do the Geckos try to sell you car insurance.

Akiva said...

The Golden Jackals can become somewhat threatening if you happen to run into them as a pack at 3am. They loose their natural fear in pack mode.

Anonymous said...

I have also seen plenty of deer in the hills around Ramat Beit Shemesh Aleph. It is beautiful watching them jump from one rock to another. The young ones are really cute!

Natan Slifkin said...

Gazelles, not deer.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the correction. So they are not the Mesopotamian Fallow deer that were mentioned in the post?

Natan Slifkin said...

Very unlikely, there are only about a dozen of those in Israel.

Anonymous said...

funny, we thought they look like moose, and we were waiting for them to offer us a beer
eh

D said...

I recently got took a short video footage of 2 jackals at night by the refaim/ayalon traffic circle. Let me know if you'd like me to get you the clip

Natan Slifkin said...

Upload it to YouTube, then I can post it here.

Sara said...

Wow, how beautiful! It's nice to be able to be a part of nature even when you live in the crowded cities.

Phil said...

R' Slifkin, have you considered making animal videos for kids? If this religious fellow can do it ( http://vimeo.com/21671514 ), so can you!

Sonya said...

I used to rent an apartment from a very old lady in Ramat Moza. One day I walking around that body of water down in the valley thats some sort of park when I saw a European Red Deer that was injured. I asked her if she knew the species and she said they brought a big group of them in many years ago from Iran and let them into the wild in that area... It's pretty close to RBS so I'm assuming thats how you've seen them :)