Gazelle Valley in Jerusalem welcomed a new fawn on Tuesday morning.
The park, the biggest urban nature site in Israel, is 64-acres of open space in the heart of Jerusalem, on the edge of the Givat Mordechai neighborhood, and is home to some 80 members of the mountain gazelle species. It is a publicly run site with no entry fees, belongs to the Jerusalem municipality and is managed by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.
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Amir Balaban, the director of SPN's Urban Nature Department, said a woman who visited the park in the early morning hours on Tuesday, noticed the tiny fawn on the side of one of the paths. Within minutes, park volunteers arrived at the spot to make sure the baby gazelle was in good health.
Video: Amir Balaban / Israel Nature and Parks Authority
"We waited at a safe distance to make sure no harm would come to [the fawn]. The concern is from the hooded crows, which can exploit any opportunity. The mother was spotted a short distance away and the team waited for her to nurse," Balaban said.
According to Yael Hammerman-Solar, the park's director, other gazelles in the valley are also pregnant.
"Similar to Israeli society, Gazelle Valley is also renewing and refreshing. The herd has grown significantly and we expect more births in the coming weeks. Every birth of a new fawn is joyous from many perspectives and mainly gives hope that the nature in Israel can still be saved," she said.
"Sadly, gazelles are endangered in Israel, with the main threat being the destruction of habitats due to the construction of roads and infrastructure that sever their living areas and isolate them from their own species, in addition to illegal hunting and the multiplicity of stray dogs and jackals that prey on the fawns – which is also the result of human behavior and the large quantities of food thrown away in an unsupervised manner that allows them to reproduce beyond their natural scope," added Hammerman-Solar.
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