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wildlife

Ofir Drori poses in Cameroon with elephant tusks seized from an African-Asian crime syndicate. (Courtesy, EAGLE)
Interview
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'We work like an army, with discipline'
Inspired by IDF training, Israeli activist spearheads fight against global wildlife crime
By Sue Surkes
Ofir Drori established a network that put 3,000 major animal traffickers behind bars. But now, he is struggling to keep his operation afloat
A monkey, likely trafficked into Israel, after being rescued by police in the Negev, southern Israel, on April 10, 2025. (Israel Police)
June 2, 2026, 12:46 pm
Knesset committee extends money laundering law to wildlife trafficking
Move allows authorities to follow money trail, track down criminals involved in what is regarded as fourth-largest category of illegal global trade
By Sue Surkes
Bahati, with one of her beloved tires. (Ramat Gan Safari)
May 5, 2026, 3:26 pm
Ramat Gan Safari bids farewell to Bahati, iconic 65-year-old elephant
One of the oldest recorded female African elephants in the world, she bore five calves and boasts a lineage of 52 elephants across European zoos
By Sue Surkes
In this undated picture, Yaniv Levy (right), Director of the National Sea Turtle Rescue Center, in Yannai, central Israel, checks the health of a loggerhead sea turtle, helped by staff member Guy Ivgy. (Erez Ehrlichman, Israel Nature and Parks Authority)
January 24, 2026, 9:07 am
Marking a global first, Israel’s new Sea Turtle Rescue Center comes out of its shell
Complex with world’s only breeding group to open next month with guided tours that will showcase researchers’ efforts to stave off the animals’ extinction
By Sue Surkes
Agriculture Ministry staff work in protective gear to clean up dead cranes infected with Avian Influenza (bird flu) from the Hula Lake Reserve in northern Israel, January 2, 2022. (Moraz Brom/Flash90)
September 28, 2025, 4:03 pm
Hebrew U-led research team calls for global wildlife tracking to help curb pandemics
Biologging animals’ movement and temperature to spot diseases that spread from creatures to people said much more cost-effective in reducing human deaths than taking later measures
By Sue Surkes
The Andean (spectacled) bear, photographed here in Peru, roams the Putumayo Amazon in Colombia, part of which TiME is trying to purchase this year. (BluesyPete, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
August 24, 2025, 4:55 pm
Israeli crowdfunding NGO’s unique model gives donors a say in saving global biodiversity
Over past 10 years, This is My Earth has bought 13 square kilometers of land in biodiversity hotspots under threat, saying every dollar donated yields 200-fold returns
By Sue Surkes
A lion cub recovered from the yard of a home in the West Bank Palestinian town of Abu Dis, July 26, 2025. (Israel Nature and Parks Authority)
July 26, 2025, 10:57 am
Lion cub found chained in yard during police sweep in West Bank Palestinian town
Nature and Parks Authority says animal is thin but has no external injuries; cub in Abu Dis is 6th to be found amid months-long operation against illegal wildlife trade
By ToI Staff
Jackals in Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv on April 13, 2020. (Jack Guez/AFP/File)
March 25, 2025, 8:34 am
Tel Aviv-Jaffa declares war on urban jackals
Host of measures seeks to send animals back to the wild, deter city animal-lovers from feeding them
By Sue Surkes
An illegally imported monkey found tied to a tree in Mazkeret Batya on March 19, 2025 (Israel Police)
March 20, 2025, 3:27 pm
Sanctuary receiving, treating smuggled monkeys says surging trade ‘breaks our hearts’
Primatologist Tamar Fredman, whose sanctuary has taken in 16 monkeys seized by police, warns that wild animals don’t make good pets, suffer emotionally, pose risks to humans
By Sue Surkes
Conservationists from the Israel Parks and Nature Authority release an endangered turtle into the Red Sea, October 31, 2024. (Screen capture via YouTube,used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
November 1, 2024, 10:29 pm
Israeli conservationists release endangered hawksbill turtles into Red Sea
Three ‘critically endangered’ turtles, all females, were raised in an underwater observatory in Eilat, and finally reached maturity at more than twenty years old
By Reuters and ToI Staff
Dr. Tomer Nisimian, chief veterinarian at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, operates on a porcupine injured by shrapnel from a rocket in Rishon Lezion, central Israel, October 25, 2023. (Eliana Yakubov, INPA)
October 29, 2023, 5:12 pm
Owl, porcupine and falcon, injured amid war, get medical care
Soldiers and others are helping to rescue wild animals hurt in war-torn areas
By Sue Surkes
A poisoned water vessel in northern Israel, October 2023 (Natan binosovich, Israel Nature and Parks Authority)
October 6, 2023, 3:19 pm
Man suspected of poisoning dozens of animals in northern Israel
Suspect was apparently trying to keep wildlife away from his avocado orchard, leading to deaths of dogs, wild boars, coyotes and more
By ToI Staff
Some of the 21 reptiles seized at Ben Gurion Airport in a joint operation by the Border Police, Customs and Excise Authority and Israel Nature and Parks Authority on June 10, 2023. (INPA)
June 11, 2023, 5:21 pm
Israeli caught at airport trying to smuggle reptiles into country
Haul of 21 creatures impounded at customs in joint op by Border Police, customs and Nature and Parks Authority
By Sue Surkes
Illustrative photo of a griffon vulture (Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 3.0/ Pierre Dalous)
March 29, 2023, 9:20 pm
Nature authority presses for millions more to protect threatened vultures
Environment Ministry asked to fund NIS 20 million yearly to remove poison-laced carcasses put out by farmers and accidentally consumed by the birds
By Sue Surkes
A small lizard that was smuggled into Israel from Hungary by a young Israeli and was seized during an operation at Ben Gurion Airport, January 2023. (Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry spokesperson)
January 9, 2023, 4:18 pm
Man attempts to smuggle reptiles in socks from Hungary
Authorities foil attempt to bring three lizards and two snakes into the country, stashed in plastic containers, tin foil and socks
By ToI Staff
A European otter. (Ezra Haddad, INPA)
December 10, 2022, 11:23 pm
Israel’s griffon vultures, European otters in ‘serious decline,’ new report finds
But Nature and Parks Authority’s first long-term assessment on state of country’s mammals, birds and reptiles shows many other species stable or expanding
By Sue Surkes
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