Negev Tortoise

In 2002, the Biblical Zoo decided to enlist for the benefit of the conservation and breeding of desert tortoises. With the support of the zoo's scholarship fund, the fund named after Prof. Aharon Shulov, the founder of the zoo, a breeding core of this rare species was established at the zoo, which was set up and managed by Aliza Roman, who was then the chief caretaker of the small animals pavilion. After a slow start (these are tortoises after all), a "population explosion" occurred and 26 tiny hatchlings hatched and survived at the zoo.

In the following year, the Shulov Fund enlisted again to help the tortoises and provided a research scholarship for fieldwork – a survey in the western Negev areas with the goal of checking the situation of the tortoises in the wild. Since the information on the biology of the species and its distribution in the country at that time was not updated, the Biblical Zoo decided to conduct an initial survey of the Negev sands with the aim of locating the current distribution areas of the species and the factors endangering it. The survey was conducted in the winter and spring months of 2004-2005 by Boaz Shaham, who is the herpetologist (reptile researcher) expert.

During the survey, not only the living tortoises were documented but also additional findings such as tracks that can indicate tortoise activity in a certain area. Six sandy areas in the western Negev were examined: the Mash'abim Nature Reserve, Agur, Shunra, Nahal Secher, Tze'elim, and Nitzana. Each area differs from the others in the risk factors that exist in it, which may hint at the most dangerous factors for the desert tortoise.

Not surprisingly, the highest amount of findings was within the Mash'abim Nature Reserve, an area that is almost undisturbed by any human activity. In contrast, in the Nitzana area, no signs of activity were found at all, except for tortoise remains. This area is an area of new settlement in which not only is the habitat radically different and has become an agricultural area, but, apparently, there is also a relatively large amount of human-associated animals in the area, such as crows, foxes, or dogs, which prey on the tortoise eggs and the young tortoises and perhaps even adult tortoises.

These species are not native to the area and arrive following the humans and the waste they produce and leave in the field. Until the arrival of the human-associated predators, the gray monitor lizard was the main predator of the desert tortoise. But since the monitor lizard is mainly active in summer and the tortoises hibernate in summer, the chances of a monitor-tortoise encounter are relatively low, and the monitor cannot extinguish the tortoises.

Another risk factor that stood out is the activity of off-road vehicles. In the Tze'elim sands, an area of heavy military vehicle activity, very few signs of activity were found, and also in the Agur and Shunra sands, areas popular with civilian off-road drivers of various types, the situation is not encouraging. After the field survey and the successful breeding at the zoo, a short attempt was made to reintroduce them to the wild in the same habitat in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, but this attempt did not succeed.

The zoo continues its efforts to protect the desert tortoise and help it escape extinction, while continuing breeding in captivity and research, and perhaps, in the future, reintroduction to the wild of individuals for the purpose of strengthening the population. Today there are individuals of this species also in additional zoos and also in the Yotvata Wildlife Reserve.

In the meantime, if you encounter a tortoise during your trip in the Negev, you are invited to look at it and be impressed by the animal, but, please, do not lift it up, and let it go on its own. This is the least we all can do in order to help in the conservation of the desert tortoise, one moment before the species disappears from our land at amazing speed.