Shai and Havatselet Feldman went for a hike in the north of the Arava yesterday when Havatselet suddenly heard strange noises: "I don't hear high frequencies very well, so I looked up and saw an ibex struggling with a barbed wire fence caught in her body," said Shai.
"I hurried up the mountain to help the ibex get free, and when I was a few meters away from it I suddenly caught an amazing sight, a caracal trying to devour it. I stopped in my place and started taking pictures. After many minutes of the caracal trying with all its might to overwhelm the ibex, it apparently gave up and let go. I took some more pictures of the caracal, and after it completely disappeared from the area, I continued towards the ibex to help free it, but then it jumped up on its own and continued on its way. A most amazing event. During the entire trip, my excitement did not diminish from the experience. I reported the incident to the inspector of the Nature and Parks Authority in the area with the aim of having them come to see how the ibex was doing."
Aryeh Rosenberg, inspector of the Nature and Parks Authority, excitedly said: "I received an initial report on Facebook. I contacted the hiker and met him in the field at the end of the route. There is a water well in the area that was mined from the 1970s. The Authority is working to rehabilitate the area together with the army. The ibex got stuck in the part of the fence that is on the slopes of the cliff and not on the hiking trail. The ibex is called Rafka. She was tagged by Dr. Yonatan Tichon and Dr. Roni King, a retired veterinarian of the Authority as part of an ibex study in 2019 by the Nature and Parks Authority and Ben Gurion University. This is a relatively older ibex, I've known her for five years. This is her living area. The caracal bit the ibex on the chin, therefore it is an injury that is considered minor and it will manage to survive it. The rare human sight of a caracal attacking an ibex is part of nature and the ecosystem. In this case, the ibex was caught in a fence that poses a danger to wild animals in the open areas."
The Nature and Parks Authority adds that the caracal is the biggest cat in Israel since the tigers disappeared. Its area of distribution is throughout Israel. This is a shy animal and is very rare to be seen in the wild. The caracal is in danger of extinction mainly due to damage to its natural habitat. The caracal preys on birds and mammals such as rabbits.
During the daytime they hide in burrows in the ground, in tangled vegetation and in rock crevices. The pregnant females will mostly be found in porcupine caves that are spacious and protected from other predators. The caracal lives on the ground but excels at climbing trees. The caracal maintains its territory by urinating. It communicates with cat-like howling sounds, growls and whispers, sounds reminiscent of coughing were also heard. It mostly lives alone, but items of different ages have been observed grouping together for different purposes.
The distribution of the caracal is in Africa, Asia in the Caspian Sea region, northern India, Arab countries and Israel. In Israel there is no accurate estimate of the number of individuals in the wild. Today, caracals can be seen mainly in the large nature reserves in the Negev, although even there they are relatively rare.