Zoo Tails 48

Dr. Elizabeth Kaufman
Veterinarian – Hospital/Quarantine

Rogers and Hammerstein once described a young woman in The Sound of Music by asking the question, “How do you catch a cloud and pin it down”. Here at the Biblical Zoo we could ask the same question about our Curator, Shmulik Yedvab. Shmulik, like a cloud racing across the sky, is a force racing around the zoo; arranging, organizing, solving problems, and always working to conserve what our planet Earth has to give. Shmulik has been blowing around the zoo for more years that most people can remember and knows the zoo and all its needs from the inside out. He started as a kid volunteering and willing to do anything anybody asked. Bev, may she rest in peace, remembered him fondly as the tall, gangly kid who asked a LOT of questions and was such a pleasure to have around.
He was the first guide for the Zoo Patrol Youth Group, later he became Deputy Director of Security for a few years before he went off to get his Masters in Zoology. He came back as Zoologist, did a few years as Head Keeper and eventually became Curator about four years ago. His personal priority is conservation of endangered species and preservation of species endemic to Israel.
Shmulik's days are never the same though a large part of each is spent answering emails and on the telephone. No one doubts that this is his least favorite part of his day but a necessary one which allows him to protect the animals in his charge. He might be arranging permits for the transport of a group of lemurs to a new home elsewhere in the world, or the arrival of our two new lionesses from Europe. All require research on his part to make sure that they are going to a good home or will be a good fit in their new home at the Biblical Zoo. He might be working on a new food source or a new source of building materials. He might be in conversation with the Nature Reserves Authority in Israel, or its international equivalent in another country, working on one of his many current conservation projects. He could be running off to one of his many meeting, perhaps one about enlarging the zoo and what exhibits our visitors would appreciate the most.
Shmulik loves the fact that his days are never the same and even though he is stuck behind a desk for awhile, his heart is in the doing. When birds in the big lake need to be caught he is the first one to put on the big green waders and slosh his way into the middle of the lake. On his way to or from work he might stop at Nahal Sorek to crash through the undergrowth with antenna and tracking gear in hand, happily ripping his pants on thorns, to try and find a wayward Fallow Deer - part of one of his favorite projects, the reintroduction of Persian Fallow Deer to the hills around Jerusalem. At the clinic he could easily be found keeping track of this year’s crop of abandoned bay kestrels, swifts or other baby birds of prey; patiently feeding them tiny morsels of food and thinking about a good home for those that are not releasable back to nature. Always warm and cheerful, Shmulik finds everything about our world fascinating and is passionately dedicated to preserving it. He is the involved with reintroducing the Griffon Vulture to the Golan Heights and is European Endangered Species Breeding Program (EEP) coordinator for the White Tailed Sea Eagle
When asked what message he would like to give to our visitors he was clear; take care of what you see because our world is slowly vanishing.
When asked what his favorite animal was he was equally as clear: his kids.