The Jerusalem Biblical Zoo

Radio Hayah took a visit to see the animals

عربى

I'm with Liz Kaufman from the Jerusalem Biblical zoo, Liz when was the zoo started and why was it started ? tell us a bit about the history.

I have been here for 25 years, 25 years ago we started construction on this site, the Old site was in the middle of Jerusalem, it was a very small site in what is now a housing project and they still call it the zoo, we moved to Malha on the outskirts of the city to a 35 acre area which was blank, all the trees that you see here now today were planted and that would have been 25 years ago.

What is the mission of the zoo.?

The mission of the zoo is conservation , education and entertainment, we want people to have fun we want them to learn about conservation issues, we are part of a lot of conservation projects for breading with a breading center for a lot of animals here that are endemic to Israel and that have been released back, we work very closely with all of the conservation bodies and the nature reserves and wild life people here the nature reserves authority all of the protection conservation and wildlife agencies, we work very closely with them, to educate the public about conservation issues about what they can do to help about what they need to be careful of when they are out camping, hiking and we are involved with the breeding of endangered species from around the world, yeah and fun we want people to have fun, we want them to come and to enjoy and see things they would not get to see in other places.

Now you mentioned endangered species what sort of endangered species are you looking after.?

So we have Golden lion tamarins which are worldwide endangered species, the ones that are critically important to us are griffin vultures which we are breeding and releasing back into the Golan, Fallow deer which we have the core breeding group of fallow deer which are mentioned in the Bible are endemic to this area and we have released 10's  up north and other parts of the country, sand cats which we have bred and released are also endangered also endemic, Testudo Kleimanni which is the desert tortoise.

So it has been a very successful breading program?

So far we've been very successful, not as much success with the Israeli sub species of the Eurasian otter but we are working on that, that is also highly endangered species.

Now how many people come here and visit each year.?

I think it's between 700 and 800 thousand people a year.

What sort of animal and plant life do you have here that is mentioned in the bible.?

There are animals that are mentioned in the bible by name and then there are animals that are mentioned, like Monkeys are mentioned, they are not endemic to the area but they are mentioned so we have monkeys and we have many kinds of Monkeys, of the animals that are mentioned directly in the bible and we have here again fallow deer, sand cats there is a lot of discussion about what exactly the Hebrew translation for some of those animals are and we will have quotes from the bible, from the old testament next to the cages of those that are specifically mentioned in the bible.

Where do you animals come from ?

A few of them have came with us from the old zoo and are still with us, Tammy, who is our big hippopotamus is well over 50, she came from the old zoo, we have black Panthers Ruth and Boaz , There names are biblical, Panthers were in this area, Leopards also, lions we get them from other zoos who have surplus and either on breeding loan or bought or they are just given from zoo to zoo trades, it has become very international to ship animals, we have shipped many giraffes to Greek islands, to Singapore zoo, they went by ship  with a keeper to Singapore so there is a lot of international trade in animals, none of them are from the wild, none of our animals are caught from the wild, they are all zoo bread.

Now you are just on the outskirts of Jerusalem and very close to Bethlehem which is a Palestinian  area, has the Zoo became a bridge between different communities.?

One of the things that we are most proud of is that we are a facility in Jerusalem that is not just opening but welcoming to all of the major religions of this area so that at any given time you will see visually what you can see are  religious Palestinians walking around with religious Jews, there are religious Christians, but they aren't in any sort of religious dress that you would recognize, they look the same as any secular Israeli or secular Arab but we have special events , everyone is welcome, everyone feels welcome our staff is very mixed, our staff represents everybody, Christians, Muslims , Jews Non affiliated, secular ,you name it everybody is welcome.

Is education important to the zoo and what kind of educational programs do you run.?

We have a whole education department, we have children's groups during the year, we have summer programs, we have programs just for the aquarium we have programs the  summer programs are in the zoo and the aquarium, the aquarium has its own educational staff, one of the major goals of the zoo is education, you can't have conservation without education so education is huge if you take a look at the signage that is around the zoo and the aquarium, it's all about education getting in either in sound bites or in big chunks as much information as we can about the animal, where it came from, the problems that it is facing in the world.

Now you have a green team at the zoo, tell us a little bit about that.

We have a number of different teams, we have Animal enrichment behavioral enrichment teams, we have green teams we have staff support teams and these teams are volunteer basis and they are responsible in the case of the green team of encouraging bottles to be put in recycling bins, don't just throw them out in the garbage, you have cans you have bottles you have paper, they collect this all, they arrange with the recycling organization to come and any money that we make is fed back into the animal enrichment program or the recycling program for more advertising and anything else, The water that we use to water all of our plants is what is called grey water, its recycled, it's not to the point where it's good for human consumption but it's great for plants  so all of the plantings  in the zoo are watered by our own grey water also from some of the neighboring neighborhoods around us, the water comes down into our reclamation system and then it goes back out into the grey water system or if you will notice the aquarium itself has a green roof which reduces heat absorption, helps to keep the building itself cooler it has all of the ponds in the entrance to the aquarium, there is no filter system on their it's all natural filtration through the beds of swamp plants so all the water comes through and over the swamp plants and all the bacteria in there cleans the water before it goes into.

So that is all recycled water which is cleaned by itself naturally as opposed to inside the building where we need to use filter systems, the outside ponds can be done naturally because of the sun.

Now the zoo has been here for many years but you have just opened the aquarium when did the aquarium start.?

The Aquarium got its first group of fish a little under 2 years ago, We had an official opening last June, We closed right away again because we only had the official opening because the family who donated the money their eldest relative, that was his trip, that was his last trip so we had a huge opening ceremony party, it was beautiful but we didn't have a  lot of fish in the tanks, we basically closed the building which was a huge news thing, we opened again to the public last November only on the basis of tours because our signage wasn't complete and the tanks weren't fully stocked and they won't be fully stocked because the fish have to grow, you can't ship fish big, they have to be shipped very small because of the shipping requirements and it will take them a year to two years  to grow. At the time we opened for tours there were very small fish and our signage wasn't complete so we felt like we need to give the public more bang for their buck basically and the tours were very educational, our tour guides are very well trained, they have a lot of interesting information to give over and it helps people feel like they are literally getting more for their money. And that gives us an opportunity to explain why tanks look the way they look and why it takes so long for things to grow into any aquarium that is new is a good 5 years before it begins to settle down.

What sort of fish can people see here ?

We have everything, we have sharks and moray eels and rays, people no matter what they say they want to see the big and the dangerous that is the first thing they are interested in, But we have jelly fish we have sea horses, the aquarium itself focuses on the four seas of Israel, the four bodies of water that surround Israel, we have one fresh water exhibit representing the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and all the other exhibits are salt water so  We have the Kinneret and then what we have what only sounds good in English, The Red , The Dead and the Med.

So we have the Dead sea because there is nothing in the dead sea, basically is not a live exhibit, It's an educational exhibit about some of the problems facing in what goes on in the dead sea  and salt mining etc, the beginning of the real aquarium is an introduction to the four seas of Israel and the first gallery and then you pass the shore line of the Mediterranean, you descend down into the Mediterranean and you learn about the fish that you eat and sustainable fisheries and why it is important to only buy from sustainable fisheries, what happens when you over fish an area, You continue down under a tunnel into our big Mediterranean tank which is 1.2 million liters, most of the fish in there are caught in the Mediterranean, they come up in trawling nets and they are often damaged, They come here for a quarantine, We fix up as many as we can which is most of them and then they go out into the exhibit, there is a two month quarantine before any fish is allowed loose into the building where they go through various treatments for all the dieses they pick up in the wild, the 1.2 million liter Mediterranean tank    has a 16 meter window with big puffy pillows that you can just sit on in front of it, there is an area there for events that will seat 150 people bleachers that fold back, we've had a couple of Bar Mitzvahs there and some hi tech events that have been really beautiful, you then proceed through the Suez canal which is very important not just economically to the region but in terms of invasive species from the red sea, also from the red sea into the Mediterranean which is all explained into this tunnel that you go through with a movie about invasive species and then you enter our red sea galleries SO our second biggest tank is a red sea reef tank  which is just beautiful   and that is where you will find a living coral reef exhibit it is the only living Corals in the building because they require very special water treatments and its going to be 5 years, it's starting to look really good but in 3 – 5 years it's going to be amazing and then you walk by, we've got Moray eels, giant potato cod which will be up to 100lbs 100-120 lbs right now they are probably 20lbs because again you can only ship them when they are little so we need to give them time to grow, Lobsters, Its tunnels for kids to crawl through, bubbles for kids to come up in the middle of the tank.

It must be really exiting for a child to be able to stand next to a shark.?   

Oh the kids love it, they like that and their favorite I think is the Nemo tank, we don't even call it clown fish it’s the Nemo tank and in another of couple of weeks I have got Dory's going into the Nemo Tank because you can't have Nemo without Dory.

I imagine this, the Zoo Is the only way that members of the public can see these kind of animals and in the aquarium these fish close up.

Unless they travel around the world, these will be animals they don't see anywhere.

Do you have international cooperation with other organizations ?

Yes we are part of several international organizations, the world association of zoos and aquaria, the European association of Zoos and aquaria and our senior staff goes back and forth to conferences all the time and it’s the internet age so any time you have a question there are several different groups and you post a question and you will get back answers from all over the world of people who have experience with whatever your question might be or they will say "oh my gosh let us know how it works for you   because we haven't tried that", way more so with the aquarium Because Fish medicine is sort of where bird medicine was 35 years ago and all the time people are making husbandry advances and welfare advances for mammals and fish and everything that is exhibited in zoos and  aquaria's  so the information and the choices that you have to make and the problems that zoos and aquaria face is, it's all out there and its all being talked about which is wonderful.

What is your favorite animal ?

I had the privilege of bottle feeding a baby leopard and a baby tiger at home and that was pretty special and I like elephants, they are really smart, I am beginning to get really fond of trigger fish, I have been at the last 2 years at the aquarium and there is surprisingly a lot of fish which you wouldn't think but they have great personality and they will come and take food from your fingers, especially trigger fish, they will take food from your finger then they will kind of tilt their heads and look at  your finger and say "Huh, That looks good too" so you get your finger out really fast.

Can People adopt an animal here.?

Both places for sure you can, We have had many animals adopted at both the zoo and the Aquarium, often for an event , we have a lion named after a Rabbi I think from somewhere in the Hamptons of  Long Island in the United States, I don't think they quite get named but we defiantly have plaques on people who have adopted sharks or rays or an exhibit certainly in the aquarium people will adopt an exhibit, happens all the time at the zoo for presents.

And what is your website for people who would like to know more ?

www.jerusalemzoo.org.il or just plug into Google Jerusalem biblical zoo.