Israeli Wolves Are Raiding Campsites To Attack Babies

Image by allthingscanid.org

By Ari Feldman September 19, 2017

Wolves are attacking Israeli campsites in efforts to take small children and babies, Haaretz reported. Arabian wolves — a subspecies of gray wolf — have attacked campers in 10 different incidents in the last four months, experts say.

Israel’s wolves, which number between 100-150, are apparently losing their fear of humans.

“Imagine a wolf that can’t find food for a few days,” said Haim Berger, a wolf expert. “Suddenly people arrive and do a barbecue, and the smell spreads across the whole wadi. So [the wolf] connects people with food and slowly the suspicion goes away.”

Witnesses say that the wolves go for the smallest members of the campers — often infants. There have been no injuries in any reported wolf attacks, though in certain cases adults had to act fast to prevent a child from being dragged away.

“It is a change in behavior that happened because of people,” said Gilad Gabay, southern region director of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. “People need to understand that they are in the heart of nature and that every feeding like that has significance. We won’t rest until we stop this, but we need the cooperation of the public.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO