desert
A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...
zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, ...
near the west entrance of
Beersheba
Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...
,
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
.
The zoo's area is 50
dunam
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...
s (1 hectare or 2.5 acres). It has a collection of mammalians,
birds
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
and
reptiles
Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...
of which the
ungulate
Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Euungulata ("true ungulates"), which primarily consists of large mammals with Hoof, hooves. Once part of the clade "Ungulata" along with the clade Paenungulata, "Ungulata" has since been determined ...
s,
turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...
s,
snake
Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...
s and
lizard
Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...
s are especially notable.
History
The zoo was established in 1954 as a
petting zoo
A petting zoo (also called a children's zoo, children's farm, or petting farm) features a combination of domesticated animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. In addition to independent petting zoos, many general ...
of the nearby school. Little by little it got support from the city of Beersheba, the Israeli Ministry of Education, the
Housing and Construction Minister of Israel
The Ministry of Construction and Housing (, ''Misrad HaBinui VeHaShikun'') is a portfolio in the Israeli cabinet. The ministry was created in 1961. Until 1977 and for a period from November 2014Ma'abarat Hazerim had been previously located, and was officially opened in 1985. The transfer was to a area. Most of the work was done by volunteers.
In 1991 with the establishment of Neve Ze'ev the zoo was moved to Kiryat Meir Batz and reopened in 1996.
In 2011 the zoo had moved to be operated by the
Be'er Sheva
Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most po ...
city hall, and since then it is operated by the Kivunim corporation which is owned by the Be'er sheva city hall.
In 2017, Negev zoo was expected to receive a pair of lions Three white lions had arrived from the Sóstó Zoo, Hungary (one male and two females).
In 2022, the zoo was closed, cages demolished. In 2023 in its place the
Midbarium
The Midbarium or "Desertarium" (; "midbar" means "desert" is Hebrew), also the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Animal Park is a desert zoo and amusement park at the edge of the desert by the northwest outskirts of Beersheba, Israel. It covers 140 d ...
("desertarium", desert park and zoo) was established.Beersheba’s Midbarium: Israel’s newest zoo is unlike any other /ref>
File:Negev_zoo_map.jpg, Negev zoo map
File:White_lion_at_negev_zoo.jpg, White lions at NegevZoo
File:Negev_Zoo_Beersheva_Israel_IMG_0549.JPG, American alligator
File:Negev_Zoo_Beersheva_Israel_IMG_0580a.JPG, Nutria at NegevZoo
File:Negev_Zoo_Beersheva_Israel_IMG_0647a.JPG, Boars at NegevZoo
File:Negev_Zoo_IMG_0076.JPG
See also
*
Wildlife of Israel
The wildlife of Israel includes the flora and fauna of Israel, which is extremely diverse due to the country's location between the temperate and the tropical zones, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the desert in the east. Spe ...