In Job 39:5, God asks rhetorically, “Who let the wild ass go free?” The image of a wild ass wandering in the wilderness was meaningful to the ancient inhabitants of the Holy Land, who were surrounded by nature in all its splendor. But the land whose diverse flora and fauna provided many a beloved biblical image was to suffer from neglect, resulting in the virtual or actual disappearance of many species from the area.

How did the biblical animals disappear? Israel Nature and Parks Authority wildlife biologist Dr. David Saltz, managing the INPA’s programs for the reintroduction of ungulate (hoofed) species, cites two causes: “the invention of modern weaponry that enabled hunters to shoot animals across long distances, as well as accessibility to nature resulting from the building of roads and the introduction of mechanized vehicles.”

In the mid-1960s, an Israeli nature lover, Gen. Avraham Yoffe, took the first steps toward bringing back these species. According to Saltz, it was long before the concept of reintroduction to the wild became conservation protocol anywhere else in the world. Yoffe established two unique wildlife preserves dedicated to propagating species for reintroduction to the wild, one at Yotvata in the Arava Valley on the road to Eilat, and the other on Mount Carmel. They were named, respectively, Hai-Bar (Wildlife) Yotvata and Hai-Bar Carmel.

The first species successfully reintroduced was the wild ass of Job 39:5, also mentioned in Genesis 16:12, and Hosea 8:9. The project began in 1983 and there are now over 100 wild asses in Israel’s natural environment.

Perhaps the most amazing story of the return of a biblical animal to Israel is that of the fallow deer, mentioned in Deuteronomy 14:5. Yoffe paid a visit to Iran on the eve of the fall of the shah, twenty-five years ago, to try to obtain fallow deer from that country. An acquaintance of his, Gen. Itzhak Segev, was the Israeli military attaché in Iran at the time. During the visit, Yoffe had a heart attack, but on the airport tarmac on the way before flying back home for treatment, he managed to ask Segev to help him with his quest. Segev sent trappers as far as the Caspian Sea on the Russian border to bring back fallow deer for transport to Israel.

Four fallow deer were trapped, all females. By this time, the ayatollah’s forces were on the verge of their takeover, and the Israeli embassy staff itself wasn’t sure they themselves would make it out of the country safely, much less get four fallow deer out, with permission to do so having been revoked. The Dutch ambassador came to the rescue, asking the ayatollah to allow the animals to be transferred to him. The Israeli embassy staff, together with the four fallow deer, left the country on the last El Al flight out of Teheran.

Miraculously, three of the four females turned out to be expecting, and gave birth to male offspring in their new home on Mount Carmel. Today, the herd numbers some 350, of which 150 have been released into the wild in the Upper Galilee. Such successful reintroduction statistics are unheard of anywhere else in the world.

Also being introduced into the wild is the roe deer, the symbol of the thirst for salvation in Psalm 42:1, and mentioned in Habakkuk 3:19 and Isaiah 35:6 as well.

Segev still follows the fallow deer reintroduction project very closely. He invites visitors to Hai-Bar Carmel to see these gentle creatures before they are moved to special habituation enclosures at their release point.

Don’t look in the Bible for the Arabian oryx, another of the animals being restored to Israel. There, it is known as the “wild ox,” and is mentioned in Numbers 23:22, Deuteronomy 33:17, and Psalm 92:10. The oryx is famous for its long, straight horns, which, seen in profile, appear as one single horn. This optical illusion may have led the Crusaders, who first encountered the oryx in the Holy Land, to identify it as the legendary unicorn.

In 1972, the last Arabian oryx was hunted in Oman. After a breeding nucleus was established in the US in an attempt to save the animal from extinction, the INPA received four breeding pairs, which came to live at Hai-Bar Yotvata. In 1996, when the herd numbered 80, the INPA began to reintroduce the oryxes to the wild in the Negev. The rest can be seen in the preserve, together with other biblical animals, such as the ostrich.

How is the reintroduction project faring? Dr. Saltz reports that rather than predators, proper habitats, or illegal hunting, lack of funding is the most significant challenge. “You don’t send your soldiers to do battle unless you know what is going on with them in the field. Post-release monitoring [which includes costly air surveillance and radio collars] is very important. We have to collect data to improve our release procedures.” 

Living the importance of reintroducing biblical animals to the wild in the Holy Land every day, David Saltz tries to inculcate its meaning in his students. When he teaches conservation biology, he says, he begins the course from an ancient Jewish source: “When God created man, he took him by the hand and said, ‘Look at all the beautiful trees and animals. Be aware that once they are gone, there is no one to replenish them.’ ”