Endangered Gazelles Spring Back in Jerusalem Park

A mountain gazelle surrounded by common myna birds at the Gazelle Valley, an urban nature reserve in the heart of Jerusalem. (AFP)
A mountain gazelle surrounded by common myna birds at the Gazelle Valley, an urban nature reserve in the heart of Jerusalem. (AFP)
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Endangered Gazelles Spring Back in Jerusalem Park

A mountain gazelle surrounded by common myna birds at the Gazelle Valley, an urban nature reserve in the heart of Jerusalem. (AFP)
A mountain gazelle surrounded by common myna birds at the Gazelle Valley, an urban nature reserve in the heart of Jerusalem. (AFP)

A few years ago, only three mountain gazelles were left in Jerusalem's shrinking green spaces, the rest having fallen victim to predators, road kills and urban development.

Today the endangered species has bounced back and a herd of about 80 of the graceful animals roam a small nature reserve within Israel's biggest city, the Gazelle Valley Park.

Created six years ago by Jerusalem City Council and the Society for the Protection of Nature (SPN), the green oasis sits inside one of the city's most dense urban development areas.

Today the park, which can be visited free of charge, is the only one in Israel where gazelles live protected -- a sanctuary badly needed by a species under intense pressure.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature placed the mountain gazelle on its Red List in 2017, saying its population was declining due to poaching, road kills and habitat degradation.

"We place the gazelles in as natural an environment as possible, so that we don't make them dependent on humans and so that we can release some of them into the wild in the future," said park director Yael Hammerman-Solar.

Endemic to the Levant, the population of mountain gazelles in Israel is now estimated at about 5,000, but falling due to urbanization and other pressures, said a recent study by Yoram Yom-Tov of Tel Aviv University and Uri Roll of Ben Gurion University in Beersheva.

In Jerusalem several years ago, the construction of a ring road suddenly "blocked the corridor that allowed the gazelles to reach other open spaces outside Jerusalem," said Hammerman-Solar.

"The animals, stuck in the valley, were decimated by stray dogs and jackals or were run over by cars on the ring road."

The SPN then fenced off the about 25 hectare (60 acres) green space and reintroduced a dozen animals, a breeding herd that has since grown to more than 80 individuals.

The park is bordered to the east by a future tramway line, and to the west by a clifftop real estate complex called Holyland.

The Gazelle Valley Park, with a series of ponds, brings other benefits too to the Holy City, said Amir Balaban, head of urban flora and fauna at SPN.

Home to diverse native plants and rich birdlife, it acts like a green lung and recreational space "by regulating temperature, producing oxygen ... and offering residents a place to connect with nature".



Newly Spotted Comet Is Third Interstellar Object Seen in Our Solar System

 This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
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Newly Spotted Comet Is Third Interstellar Object Seen in Our Solar System

 This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Astronomers are tracking a newly spotted comet hailing from parts unknown, only the third time such an interstellar object has been observed visiting our solar system.

According to US space agency NASA, the interloper - named 3I/ATLAS - was first spotted on Tuesday by an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope located in Rio Hurtado, Chile. Astronomers said its unusual trajectory indicated it had ventured from beyond our solar system.

Journeying at a speed of around 37 miles (60 km) per second from the direction of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, 3I/ATLAS is presently located about 420 million miles (670 million kilometers) from Earth.

"Beyond that we do not know very much, and there are many efforts underway to observe this object with larger telescopes to determine composition," University of Hawaii astronomer Larry Denneau, co-principal investigator for ATLAS, said on Thursday.

The only other such interstellar visitors previously observed by astronomers were objects called 1I/'Oumuamua (pronounced oh-MOO-uh-MOO-uh), detected in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019.

"The comet has some similarities to 2I/Borisov in that it appears to be an icy comet, but it is much larger, possibly 10 km (6.2 miles) in diameter," Denneau said.

"It currently has a faint coma," Denneau added, referring to the cloud of gas and dust surrounding a comet's nucleus, "but the coma and tail may increase dramatically as the object comes closer to the sun. Its closest approach to the sun will be later this year, when it will come inside the orbit of Mars. We don't know what will happen, so that's exciting."

Astronomers said the comet poses no threat to Earth and will never come closer than 150 million miles (240 million km) away, equivalent to more than 1-1/2 times the distance between Earth and the sun. It is currently located about 416 million miles (670 million km) from the sun and will reach its closest approach to the sun around October 30, when it will be about 130 million miles (210 million km) away from our star.

The ATLAS network is a NASA-funded telescope survey built and operated by the University of Hawaii, with five telescopes around the world that scan the night sky continuously to look for objects that could threaten Earth.