The old Negev Zoo In Beersheva, just 25 miles from Gaza, closed in October 2022 to make way for the new, one-of-a-kind Midbarium Desert Animal Park. 

After a year of preparing the 37-acre park and its innovative interactive visitor experiences, and transferring and acclimating 100 species of desert animals, the grand opening was scheduled for November 2023.

But then Hamas started a war on October 7. Now it’s unclear when the $60 million animal park will open. 

Despite a severe staffing shortage and frequent air-raid sirens that frighten and endanger the creatures and their keepers, the animals need care and feeding – including animals evacuated to Midbarium from petting zoos in Gaza border communities. 

“It’s a risk to be here,” says zoologist Sefi Horesh, Midbarium’s director of education and science. “It’s difficult, but we’re managing.”

Skeleton crew

During the first week of war, the park couldn’t even get vegetables for the animals. 

“Usually we receive donations, leftovers and tithes, but there was nothing available. The Ramat Gan Safari, one of our partners in the Israel Zoo Association, sent us a truckload of vegetables, and we also had to buy supermarket produce for our animals,” Horesh tells ISRAEL21c.

“Our baboons were in the Negev Zoo for 15 years and they are aware of what the siren means. They look up to the sky and a lot of them run to their inside enclosure. They learned that it’s safer inside.”

“We are doing our best to keep food and veterinary care going. We cannot do the training and enrichment that we normally do to keep the animals physically and mentally stimulated, because we are very low on manpower.” 

Some employees were called up for reserve duty or have spouses in reserve duty and have to stay home with their children. Others fled Beersheva for safer parts of Israel. 

Volunteers, including eight in the National Service program, have been told not to come because of the danger. Ordinarily, the park depends on these volunteers to perform essential daily tasks. The remaining crew is working 12-hour days, seven days a week.

“The main issue is the actual threat here in Beersheva, because we are on the western edge of the city, pretty close to Gaza, and we have rocket fire almost every day,” says Horesh.

“We also have shrapnel from Iron Dome missile interceptions falling on our zoo. I have some here in my office.”

Because the keepers work in open areas, when a red alert sounds they cannot get to a bomb shelter within the recommended 45 seconds. Instead, they must lie on the ground and cover their heads. 

Scary noises 

“The noise of alarms and booms stresses the animals a lot, especially those that have not been living in Beersheva for long,” says Horesh.

“Our baboons were in the Negev Zoo for 15 years and they are aware of what the siren means. They look up to the sky and a lot of them run to their inside enclosure. They learned that it’s safer inside.”

Likewise, the chimpanzees in the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo know that an air-raid siren means they should head to their indoor space, where the care team is waiting for them with bananas, a zoo spokesman tells ISRAEL21c.

Although there are many fewer alarms in Jerusalem than in the south, the zoo has regulation-compliant protected spaces available to many of the animals. Caretakers are training them to enter these spaces when they hear a siren.

In general, says Horesh, the Midbarium staff is keeping most animals indoors for their protection these days.

Image - Courtesy of Midbarium