Rises in illegal wildlife smuggling, wildlife poisoning, rabid animals entering Israel, and deaths of hikers who didn’t follow the rules brought bad news for nature in 2025, according to an annual roundup by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

But in good news, visitor numbers are back to half of what they were before the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, which halted all overseas tourism, nearly half a million people (480,000) enjoyed the country’s campsites, up from 260,000 last year, and populations of gazelle, Nubian ibex (mountain goat), turtles, and vultures are holding up (with drops in some areas of the country due to this year’s drought).

On the flip side, the year saw 3,209 criminal cases opened for illegal wildlife smuggling (compared to 2,042 last year and 2,667 in 2023), which included dozens of monkeys and several lion cubs thought by police to have been flown into Israel by drone from Egypt and Jordan.

Fifteen people died while hiking in open spaces, compared with five last year. The most recent death occurred a month ago in Ein Avdat, when a young volunteer living in the desert community of Midreshet Sde Boker before his army conscription went off the marked trails.

“In all these cases, people didn’t take enough water, or didn’t know which way they were going,” said the authority’s general director, Raya Shurki, addressing the........

© The Times of Israel