A griffon vulture
Photo: Yossi Levine
Injured birds get flying lessons at Ramat Gan animal hospital
Thousands of our feathered friends are treated in the Israeli Wildlife Hospital, and often need to learn how to fly again following complicated surgeries; a new enclosure is set to allow them all the air time they need before to return to the wild
It appears that flying isn't like riding a bicycle.
The Israeli Wildlife Hospital, operated by the Nature and Parks Authority and the Ramat Gan Safari Park is building a new enclosure, set to become a flight school for injured birds before they return to the wild.
Bird of prey flies above Tel Aviv region (Photo: Yuval Dax)
The hospital has been operating for 14 years, and while in the beginning it treated about 300 animals a year, today patients number 6,000 a year.
The rising intensity calls for enlarging the hospital, and the three organizations have decided on two new enclosures and new and on purchasing new and modern equipment.
A flamingo is treated at Ramat Gan safari (Photo: The Ramat Gan Safari Park)
The Ramat Gan municipality, where the Safari and the hospital are located, has also decided to support the initiative.
The new facilities are set to serve birds, and especially birds of prey, that arrive in the hospital for various reasons, like electrocutions, injuries and poisonings.
A common kestrel (Photo: Yuval Dax)
Birds often arrive in the hospital with severe injuries and have to go through complicated orthopedic surgeries that call for a long rehabilitation period. Many end up unable to fly even after rehabilitation.
In order to be released back into the wild, these birds require a second rehabilitation period, that focuses on re-learning how to fly and practicing it.
This demands a very large enclosure that allows flight, set to be built as part the new enlargement project, in order to get these patients out of the hospital and up in the sky.
