Monitoring the Environment

The Wildlife Hospital staff monitors the various hazards which harm wildlife, by gathering information and incorporating it into a current picture. In this way it is possible to trace hazards in nature that are caused by man and different ecological problems.

We encounter many injuries caused to wildlife by man, every year numerous gunshot cases (illegal hunting), road traffic accidents, poisonings and electrocutions are discovered. We are aware that this only the tip of the iceberg, because many of the animals injured in nature are not discovered. Although the total number of injuries in nature remains unknown, we can learn from these statistics about the character and orientation of the injuries.

The Wildlife Hospital staff reports every injury to the Nature and Parks Protection Authority. The information is transferred in real time to the field, and assists in preventing the recurrence of these injuries by disposing of the existing hazard and through law enforcement. Additionally to monitoring the hazards caused by man, we take samples from treated animals for locating diseases.

There is great importance in finding diseases in wild birds and especially migratory birds. Twice a year half a billion birds fly over the Israeli skies. These birds travel through Europe, Asia and Africa thus are exposed to various factors and may carry diseases and pathogens from country to country. Testing for diseases such as West Nile Fever and Avian Influenza helps epidemiologically monitor the diseases in Israel.