The Hai-Bar Nature Reserve in the Carmel is a center dedicated to growing, breeding and returning animals to the wild; animals that lived in the past in Mount Carmel and became extinct from the area in the beginning of the 20th century due to human activities such as hunting, poisoning and deforestation.

 

The tour in the reserve begins with a lecture and a lookout over the Carmel Reserve, an area that in the last few years has been going through rehabilitation, due to the massive conflagration that destroyed large portions of the Mediterranean thicket characterizing the region and adjacent to the city of Haifa.

 

After the impressive lookout, we’ll descend to the audiovisual show that portrays the story of Hai Bar; the stories of animals extinct from the Carmel who are now gradually returning to the natural scenery of the Carmel and other regions in the Galilee.

 

We recommend joining a one hour guided tour that passes between wildlife sites in the reserve: the salamander pool that preserves the salamander habitat, an endangered amphibian, the site of mountain gazelle that live all over the country from Mount Hermon to the center of the Negev, the wild goat and wild sheep site that lived in Israel thousands of years ago and are even mentioned in the bible. Due to climate changes the animals growing in the Carmel Hai Bar are not meant to return to the wild. We’ll continue on the trail and arrive to the Persian fallow deer site; a species from the deer family, its Hebrew name (first mentioned in the bible) derives from the color of its reddish fur, the color of red loam soil. There is great ecological significance in returning the Persian fallow deer back to the wild, since it is a large leaf and grass eater who eats and “trims” forest trees and bushes throughout the year, and in such helps thinning out the thicket and prevent fire spreading. This remarkable animal has been released to nature since the mid 90’s in different locations all over the Galilee, each one carrying a transmitter that enables tracking them. We’ll finish the trail at the eagles’ cage, which is used for breeding eagles and many other endangered birds of prey. The young birds are acclimated to their natural environment and are released to the wild after being marked and tagged with a transmitter so that they will be traceable throughout Israel, the Middle East and Europe. A network of feeding stations is spread all over the country and provides birds with nutritious food, free of toxins and medication.

 

 

Haifa - Hai Bar Carmel nature reserve