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Palestinian zoo endures despite star giraffe's loss
Amelia Thomas Middle East Times February 13, 2007
LOSS: Head veterinarian Sami Khader examines the body of Ruti the giraffe, at the West Bank's Qalqilya zoo. The giraffe was the the star attraction at the beleagured zoo and passed away sometime after the death of its mate, which was scared into fatally injuring itself on hearing shots from a nearby Israeli incursion. QALQILYA, West Bank -- On what begun as a regular Thursday morning in early February, Sami Khader, head veterinary surgeon at the only remaining zoo in the Palestinian West Bank, commenced his daily rounds.
He checked on Dubi, the solitary hippo who obligingly opened his mouth to display impressive molars on command. He moved on to the three male lions gifted by Israel's Ramat Gan safari park, now squeezed into a tiny, bare cage. Next, he looked in on the family of Syrian bears, one of the only species to have bred successfully in the cramped captivity of the zoo.
All was progressing as usual, until Khader proceeded to the giraffe enclosure, where, to his dismay, he found that a zoological Nabka (catastrophe) had occurred. Ruti, the highly prized female giraffe, star of the small, struggling zoo, was dead.
The rag-doll body of the 5.5-meter (18-foot) reticulated giraffe lay slumped on the floor in her night quarters, her evening meal still untouched in the stall. Her eyes, fringed with thick lashes, stared off into the distance, vacantly. Soon after, a small crowd of zoo workers gathered to gaze in disbelief. "How will we move her?" asked one stunned keeper. "We'll need a tractor," replied another, "and we'll have to take the gates down."
The death of Ruti at Qalqilya marks the sad end to a story that began over a decade ago, when two giraffes arrived at the small, fledgling - albeit then relatively prosperous - zoo in the heart of the West Bank. Brought over as part of a shipment from South Africa at a cost of roughly $15,000 each, the giraffes were to be the zoo's star attraction, probably the first examples of the species ever to arrive on Palestinian soil.
Ruti, and her mate Brownie, soon settled into their rudimentary, but roomy, enclosure, becoming firm favorites with zoo visitors, which, at the time, comprised Palestinians from across the West Bank, Israeli Arabs from the surrounding area, and a sprinkling of notables, including former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat, and former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.
"Over the next few years," relates Khader, "the giraffes were very happy in their home. They were in very good health, and, eventually in 2000, mated successfully."
A giraffe's gestation period is a lengthy 15 months, and, as Ruti's belly slowly swelled, the second, "Al Aqsa" intifada erupted in September 2000.
In 2002, work began on Israel's "separation barrier," which abuts Qalqilya, and by 2003, the town had become what it is today: a place encircled by concrete walls and barbed wire fences, with only one checkpoint through which all traffic, in or out of town, must pass. Military curfews became frequent; unemployment soared. Attendance figures at the last Palestinian zoo slumped to almost zero, and the staff risked their safety to ensure the zoo's animals remained fed throughout the worst of the violence.
The tale of what happened at the zoo during those dark days has already passed into Qalqilya lore. One night, under cover of darkness, so the story goes, the town was penetrated by an Israeli military incursion. The troops set up temporary headquarters at a boys' school, backing onto the perimeter wall of the zoo, close to the giraffe enclosure. That same night, soldiers fired shots from the school in the direction of the zoo, and Brownie, the male giraffe, panicked and bolted, hitting his head on a concrete lintel in his stall. When zoo staff arrived in the morning, Brownie was already dead. One week later, after refusing all food, Ruti delivered a stillborn calf.
According to Khader, all recent attempts to secure a new male giraffe as a replacement mate for Ruti had been fruitless. Either, he explained, zoos had been unwilling to part with specimens, or problems had occurred in attempting to secure transportation permits for the animals through Israel. Moreover, he added, giraffes are a notoriously difficult species to transport at all, succumbing easily - and fatally - to anesthetics. Thus, Ruti remained alone, with the zoo unable to increase its giraffe population.
Until early February, however, efforts had continued to procure a second such animal, despite the obstacles. Officials at the world-class Jerusalem zoo, having recently learned of Qalqilya zoo's predicament, expressed an interest in participating in talks, hoping to bolster the West Bank zoo's current renovation projects, and perhaps provide them with a replacement male giraffe. However, as one Jerusalem zoologist warned, the process would be lengthy, and might still prove ultimately unsuccessful if Qalqilya's facilities were unable to meet stringent animal welfare guidelines, or bear the heavy burden of transportation costs.
"Now, anyway, they're too late," says Khader, adding, "we made a lot of efforts, and there's no giraffe at Qalqilya any longer." Ruti will thus be joining Brownie and their calf in the natural history museum constructed by Khader himself on the grounds of the zoo. Khader, as well as being the West Bank's sole zoo vet, is also a keen taxidermist, bent on preserving the zoo's losses for posterity, as well as maintaining its live specimens as far as possible.
One might wonder, with unemployment brushing 70 percent in Qalqilya, why municipality funds continue to be set aside to finance an endeavor that has not, since its heyday in the mid-nineties, turned a profit.
"It is a place of encounter," says Khader, "the only place where Palestinian children can see something of the wild world outside their own cages." Also, he adds, it is a vital place of education. His newly created museum, for example, is aligned with Palestinian education ministry standards, and used by local schools as a means of enlivening teaching, particularly welcome when education funds are in such short supply.
One bright spot on an otherwise dark horizon, however, is Rambo, a three-month-old baby baboon born at the zoo and hand-reared by Khader. In a world where all is lost, the new baboon provides hope for the future of the zoo. Having bonded with a small calico cat named Bussi, Rambo and his feline companion are already proving to be a hit with visitors, sharing a cage alongside the remaining leopards, bears, and wolves.
At the opposite end of the zoo, while Khader geared up to perform an autopsy on Ruti's body, zoo workers speculated on the cause of the giraffe's sudden, unexpected death.
"It might be [due to] a liver abscess, or heart failure," conjectured Khader. "I'll bet it's the second," responded one co-worker, glumly. "She died of a broken heart."
I think all of Palestine is dying from a broken heart!
Posts: 3168 | From: If you don't like it, don't look or read it! | Registered: Oct 2006
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"the only place where Palestinian children can see something of the wild world outside their own cages."
So sad and so true. I wish that the awareness to the palestinian cause could be raised. I think that the travesty of human suffering is something that we all as world citizens should be held accountable for.
Posts: 1879 | From: Going to Graceland | Registered: Nov 2006
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