The Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve is a 3,000-acre (12 km2) breeding and reacclimation center administered by the Israel Nature Reserves & National Parks Authority, situated in the Southern Arabah near Yotvata.
The Yotvata Hai-Bar is the desert counterpart of the Carmel Hai-Bar Nature Reserve which operates in the country's Northern Mediterranean forest.
Endangered and locally extinct animals mentioned in the Bible are bred here for possible reintroduction to the Negev desert. The Asian Wild Ass has already been reintroduced in the Makhtesh Ramon into the wild. In addtition the park has some rare desert animals, which are not native to Israel, like the Scimitar Oryx from northern Africa.
Some of the species bred here are:
- Arabian Oryx (O. leucoryx)
- Scimitar Oryx (O. dammah)
- Ostrich (S. c. camelus)
- Addax (A. nasomaculatus)
- Asian Wild Ass (hybrids of E. h. kulan and E. h. onager)
- Somali Wild Ass (E. a. somaliensis)
- Caracal (Caracal caracal schmitzi)
- Sand Cat (Felis margarita harrisoni)
- Arabian Leopard (P. p. nimr)
- Arabian Wolf
- Dorcas Gazelle
- Griffon Vulture
- Nubian Ibex
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Arabian Oryx
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Asian Wild Ass
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Ostrich
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Scimitar Oryx
Famous quotes containing the words nature and/or reserve:
“These are not the artificial forests of an English king,—a royal preserve merely. Here prevail no forest laws but those of nature. The aborigines have never been dispossessed, nor nature disforested.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Mutual repect implies discretion and reserve even in love itself; it means preserving as much liberty as possible to those whose life we share. We must distrust our instinct of intervention, for the desire to make one’s own will prevail is often disguised under the mask of solicitude.”
—Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881)