About Gazelles and authorities who are even more scared of them

With the increase in the gazelle population, the wolves multiplied, but then the farmers demanded to thin them out, and the jackals came

The Nature and Parks Authority published numbers of Gazelle counts in the Golan and the Issachar highlands, according to the publications, the population numbers fell by hundreds of percent in the last 25 years... from 350 gazelle in the Issachar highlands in the 200s to less than 450 this year, from 250 individuals in the Golan... to XNUMX.

If the numbers are correct, this is the number of Palestinian Gazelle Israeli deer! I would rather mention that in 1967, when we arrived in the Golan, there were almost no deer in it, under Syrian rule, anyone who moved in the area was hunted. To remedy the situation, deer were captured in the Issachar highlands and released in the Golan.

That is to say (if the figures of the Israeli reserves and parks authority are correct) within about 20 years the Gazelles multiplied and their population increased by tens of percent, so much so that the farmers began to claim damages, a similar situation also arose in the Issachar mountains. The rapid increase was caused by the availability of food and a small number of predators, but nature knows how to deal with problems and in a short time a wolf population grew that was supposed to "take care" of the increase in gazelles.

This is where the farmers intervened who dealt with the elimination of the wolves since these "predator calves", the removal/thinning of the super predator population left a void which is filled by the jackals.
https://www.hayadan.org.il/super-preditors-missing-2211099/

The farmers also claimed damages from the mouths of the gazelle: competition for grazing sources with the cattle. As a reminder, a Palestinian gazelle is a protected wild animal! So is a wolf! In any country whose residents respect their natural environment (and the law). When there is friction between farmers and wild animals (protected), the farmers are obliged to prevent the damage by means that do not harm the animals: fencing, scaring and even feeding (see the treatment of cranes) this with the help of the authorities, with us... the Golan cattlemen are new settlers, as in many other cases, the relationship between them and the natural environment is not "rooted in their blood" like traditional farmers in Europe for example.

Therefore, when factors from the natural environment "harm" the farmers, they turn to those whose job is to protect wild animals along the lines of "take your animals from here and we will not destroy them".

Those whose job it is to protect the animals were frightened and the result was wrong activity, when grievances came about "wolves eating calves"... the wolf population was depleted. The thinning of the wolf population gave the gazelle an incentive to breed, since the farmers claimed "damages from the armies" the gazelle population was "thinned", and thus an activity that began when the animal world returned (after the Syrian era) became "protection of farmers" i.e. "thinnings".

The combination of "thinning" the population of gazelle and wolves gave jackals a living and spreading space. The proliferation of settlements and the growth of the human population added another predator to the system of dogs that went wild! These return to their "origins", organize in packs and become skilled hunters. The ban on destroying domestic dogs that have become feral "contributes" to reproduction and endangers the natural environment as well as the residents, because despite publications, those who transmit rabies and cause its spread are dogs that do not fear humans and move from area to area (jackals). , foxes and wolves are "territorial" and stay in a defined area). Jackals and dogs "enjoy" the ability and skill of people to produce ... dirt. Domestic animal carcasses that are scattered around the farms and "pirate dumps" are (alternative) sources of food. (Remember that littering is a crime).

A combination of a minority to a lack in the populations of super-predators - wolves, together with a constant "supply" of food from human sources will create maximum conditions for the reproduction of packs of wild dogs and jackals, these too hunt gazelle to the point of extinction.

And so the weakness of the authorities in the face of "ranchers", the ability of residents to produce and spread... filth, the lack of feeling of national belonging by farmers, all of these lead to a deadly combination for the wild animals in our environment. Because even within the boundaries of our tiny country, it would be true if instead of controlling the environment for the sake of the human population, there would be control of the human population for the sake of the environment!