Eagle lost in the wind

Due to the strong eastern wind that blew over the weekend of 6-7/12/24 - a retired eagle arrived at Apollonia National Park A big surprise was registered at the weekend at Apollonia National Park, after a young eagle that lost its way appeared there. The eagle numbered B03 hatched this year in the breeding nucleus, was acclimated in retirement and was released into the wild.

Ohad Hatzoft, poultry ecologist at the Nature and Parks Authority:

The eagle went on one of the first long-range flights of his life and got lost. A familiar phenomenon are young, inexperienced eagles. He made a flight south with another eagle, the last one landed in Carmel but the young eagle didn't really know where he was, apparently the strong east wind that blew yesterday swept him west. On Friday afternoon, he arrived in the Apollonia area, where Yohai Wasserlauf, an ornithologist and researcher working with the Authority who lives nearby, made observations of him last night until this evening, and this morning I arrived with him to capture the eagle.

The task of capturing it was not easy, as Ohad says: "We chased the eagle for several hours in the territories of the Israel Defense Forces. The eagle flies well but the area is dangerous. At one point he landed on a power pole and we were very worried. He flew and landed in the highest place on the ruins of the fortress in Apollonia. The eagle, probably a female, was a serious fighter. But in the end we managed to capture her and now I will take her back to the Aklum cage in Gamla. I am very grateful to Yohai and Tal from the Apollonia National Garden for the assistance. I wouldn't have been able to capture the eagle and manage on my own without them!"

The Nature and Parks Authority explains that the eagle is a large bird of prey that flies in the sky and looks for carrion for food. In the recent past, hundreds of eagles nested in all the mountainous and rugged regions of Israel. Today there are only about 170 eagles in Israel, this after about 20 eagles died last year as a result of two different poisoning cases. Poisoning from poisoned humps, electrocution and collision with power lines, illegal hunting and trapping, reduction of food sources and habitats as well as disturbance of the nesting places by travelers - affected the extreme decrease in the number of eagles and today they are in serious danger of extinction and exist only thanks to extensive conservation efforts.

The restoration of the eagles carried out by the Nature and Parks Authority is carried out as part of the 'Forishim Knaf' project, which operates in cooperation with the Biblical Zoo. The breeding core also includes the eagles in the various zoos: the Zoological Garden of Tel Aviv University, the Ramat Gan Safari and Chai Bar Yatbata, where eagles are kept For breeding, a hatchery was set up in the biblical zoo to which all the eggs laid in the breeding nucleus are transferred. The uniqueness of the breeding nucleus in the Bar Carmel wildlife of the Nature and Parks Authority in the world-scale facilities established there. After the eaglets hatch, they are ready for adoption by the adult eagle pairs, and those left without adoptive parents are raised by the caretakers.