In the Book of Genesis, Noah was called on by God to save the animals of the world; It may be modern day Israelis who will again be called upon to perform that same task.
Albert Einstein, once said, “Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.” In dire need of this “embrace” are the animals of our planet facing extinction.
We all know that the rhino is in a very vulnerable position – the western black rhino is already declared extinct and elephants are also constantly hunted for their ivory, but there are many less obvious animals that are currently endangered in South Africa.
A hundred years ago, Africa teemed with wildlife. It appeared a veritable animal paradise to the 26th President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt, who shortly after leaving office in 1910, explored the continent for nearly a year, collecting thousands of specimens for the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History.
A contemporaneous National Geographic article of the early 20th century, records the former President describing Africa’s “inexhaustible bounty of wildlife” – a veritable paradise. There was no danger that the elephant would become extinct, he confidently asserted, “because large elephant reserves have been established; and furthermore, wise regulations have been adopted and are enforced; such as prohibiting the sale of tusks below a certain size, and the shooting of females except for museums.”
Today, the elephant which ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt believed was safe in the wild is endangered, as is “30% of the vertebrate animal population,” says Dr. Yigal Horowitz, chief veterinarian at Ramat Gan’s Safari Park and head of a project to save much of the world’s animals. Vertebrates are animals with an internal skeleton made of bone and include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, primates, rodents and marsupials.
The Wild Bunch
This writer set out to meet the doctor in his ‘natural habitat’. Passing through the main entrance, I was told that his office at the Wildlife Hospital was a two-kilometer drive. It turned out to be two kilometers of sheer eye-opening pleasure. I forgot I was in Israel, and felt transplanted back to South Africa, the country of my upbringing. I saw elephants, zebra, giraffes, buck, hippos, rhinos, and a multitude of birds, much of it at the idyllic man-made lake. The area was vast, and animals roamed the veld and frolicked in the water on this hot day, oblivious to the hustle and bustle of nearby Tel Aviv.
“You enjoyed the drive seeing our wonderful wildlife?” asked Horowitz as he met me at the administrative compound.
“Yes, very much,” I replied.
“Now we have to save what you saw for future generations.”
Search for the sky- A rehabilitated Eagle returns to the sky.
“Is the situation that bad?” I asked.
“Worse!”
Paradise Lost
We sat down in the doctor’s office and the first thing to strike me was the absence of photos, big or small, of politicians, only of animals. Clearly, these were God’s creatures most dear to Horowitz who is on a mission – not only to heal and return to the wild the animals brought in to the internationally renowned Israeli Wildlife Hospital, but to save their very species from extinction.
“It’s sad to think that these majestic creatures won’t be around forever,” I sadly lament.
Explains Horowitz: “The human population is constantly expanding at the expense of the animal population. As man continues to appropriate more land whether to develop cities, acquire natural resources, and build farms, he is impervious to the fact that his actions are destroying the natural habitats of the animal kingdom.” And if this was not enough, “There are man-made disasters like oil spills, climate change, over-hunting and poaching.”
The latter two are most prevent throughout much of Africa, particularly in South Africa.
Horowitz related his surprise when in 2012, he brought over a White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum), from the Pretoria Zoo in South Africa to the Safari Park. Before leaving on the plane with the rhino, “A few of the officials of the park came and thanked me for “saving” her from poachers. I thought this was strange. This was a rhino not in the wild but in what I thought was a protected environment and still, the South African officials believed she was safer in Israel! This to me was a disturbing revelation.”
Named after the famed Israeli singer and songwriter Keren Peles, “Keren is doing well and has kids of her own now.” The happy father according to Horowitz, “was quite smitten with the South African beauty from the moment they first met. She adjusted well – plenty space, good sunlight, excellent food and most important of all – no POACHERS”, Horowitz bellowed, raising both his arms.
I had little doubt that if animals were on ‘Trip Advisor”, Israel’s Safari Park would receive rave reviews!
No Animal Left Behind
Heartwarming. Dr. Yigal Horowitz listens to reptile’s heartbeat before giving it a clean bill of health.
With Noah’s ark having saved the animals from extinction, Horowitz explained how veterinarians like himself at the Zoological Center Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan Safari, in partnership with experts led by Prof. Thomas Hildebrandt and Dr. Susanne Holtz from The Berlin Genome Resource Bank at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, IZW will use innovative techniques to create a DNA tissue bank. “It will be for animals facing extinction in the next few years and for those who will suffer the same fate later,” says Horowitz. All in all, too many species are sitting on ‘death row’ – “it’s an unpredictable question of when – and the clock is ticking!”
Bird in the Hand – The late Israeli President, Shimon Peres (2nd left) and Dr. Yigal Horowitz (3rd left) about to release wild who had been rehabilitated birds into the wild.
The Israel-German Ark of Life will be “a frozen zoo” comprising the DNA samples of animals facing extinction. “We will preserve the tissue by taking a skin biopsy – about half a centimeter, and place it in liquid nitrogen in special tubes at a constant 196 degrees Celsius. The beauty of this method, is that these samples can be so preserved for at least 3000 years.”
Back to the Bible
The idea behind this project, is to follow the example from the Bible of how Noah saved the animals – selecting two of each species; a male and a female – and following the flood, releasing them into the wild to start reproducing. “Today, the ‘flood’ threatening the animals is not water but a combination of mostly man-related activities as we shoot, poison, electrocute, or take over their territory which ultimately endangers their survival as a species. By taking tissue samples, we will have the genetic makeup, so we can, with future technology – whether five or a hundred years from now – reproduce these animals.” This will be very different from the sheep “Dolly”, who in 1996, was the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. Like Israel’s rhino, the most famous sheep in the world was also named after a famous musical entertainer – Dolly Parton. As British embryologist Sir Ian Wilmut at the University of Edinburg said at the time, “Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton‘s!”
Looking into to the future, Horowitz cited the exciting work of 2012 Nobel Prize Laurette, Shinya Yamanaka whose findings “have revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop.” Working with mice, Horowitz explained how “Yamanaka showed that by introducing only a few genes, he could reprogram mature cells to become pluripotent stem cells, that is, immature cells that are able to develop into all types of cells in the body.” This means that over time, the tissues removed from lions, tigers, elephants, and crocodiles will be able in the future to be reproduced and “what befell the extinct dodo will not befall the threatened panda.”
Salvation Science
“Is this not playing God?” I ask.
“They could have said that before the first heart transplant – like you had in South Africa – or before antibiotics or insulin were invented when people would simply die from their conditions,” answers Horowitz.
Hungry Newborns- In the absence of their mother, these chicks tended by a caring Safari Park team.
“Each age develops its technology and maybe this is all part of God’s plan that we try understanding the nature of problems and find solutions. In this way, I like to feel we are integral in God’s business.” Continuing, “much of what we are talking now may seem like science fiction. However, it’s not fiction, simply science. We have an obligation; if these animals disappear, we must have done all we could to preserve the species from extinction. We must ensure to at least have provided the means that, in partnership with the scientists of the future, will allow those ‘lost’ animals to reclaim their God-given place on our planet. We have to provide this chance for the future, and now is the time to begin the work – a modern day Noah’s ark.”
“Thankfully, we have good people like you,” I express. “No, there are a lot of good people out there; now the only problem is to bring on board partners and governments to proceed.”
“Why at the Safari Park,” I ask.
“The perfect place,” explains Horowitz. “This is the only Wildlife Hospital in Israel and the largest in the world. We treat over 4000 animals a year so have a wealth of experience.”
Horowitz explains the four main goals of the internationally renowned hospital. “Firstly, to rehabilitate injured or sick animals from all over Israel and then release them into the wild – that is always our primary goal; release them back to nature.” The second goal is education, “and we have as part of our 60,000 visitors a year, many school kids so that we can prepare caring and understanding future generations. The students can also watch operations on animals through viewing windows in the hospital.”
Because we are the only hospital that receives animals from all over the country, “our third goal is to serve as a monitor. We can predict what kind of injuries or illnesses we can expect from what areas such as animals or birds being electrocuted or poisoned and then advise the appropriate authorities to take the requisite action to protect the animals.” The fourth goal is research, “and it is in this area that our Noah Project fits in perfectly. However, we will need to build a special laboratory and tissue bank.”
At the Crossroads
Listening to Horowitz expound on the magnitude of the project of saving much of the planet’s wildlife, it felt is only fitting that Israel should be at the forefront of the project that has biblical overtones. Next to all the scientific, medical, and veterinary textbooks and journals that grace the shelves in Dr. Horowitz’s office, there could just as well have been the Book of Genesis. It would not have been out of place.
“What’s more,” says Horowitz, “Israel is at the center of one of the world’s most important migratory flight paths between Europe, Asia and Africa. “Each year, on the way south and then on their return flight to the north, millions of birds stop right here in Israel. It is like an annual pilgrimage and people visit from all over the world to view the birds. Consequently, our understanding of birds is profound, and reflects Israel’s centrality in this field of knowledge. From religion, with Israel at the center of the three main Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – to our expertise in the sciences of survival, I feel this is another reason why Israel should be the center of this Israel-German Arc of Life.” Furthermore, Horowitz would like to bring on board to the project all those countries from Europe, Asia and Africa that are so connected to Israel by the birds’ seasonal flight paths, to join in partnership to save the planet’s wildlife.
He is looking forward to South Africa’s participation.
There is a catchy rhyme on saving our animals:
“Some species are slipping away,
can’t we help them in some way?”
From US President Theodor Roosevelt over a century ago, who thought that the elephants in Africa were safe, to former US President Barak Obama who campaigned with the slogan “Yes We Can”, the answer from Dr. Yigal Horowitz is the same – “Yes We Can” – but it will require the leadership and support from around the world “to climb aboard our 21st century Noah’s Ark”.
