Earlier this week, some heartless person locked up in a plastic bottle a Meriones Tristram, known as Tristram’s jird, a rodent that lives in the Middle East and is named after the Reverend Henry Baker Tristram who collected the first specimens. A group of Israel Nature and Parks Authority inspectors found the poor creature and released it.
Over the past year, 7,078 animals required veterinary care with one of the factors that significantly harms their health and lives being the plastic that’s dumped in the wild.
Bags and wipes are eaten by animals that have not learned to avoid them: turtles in the sea and goats in the desert.
The stomach of almost every goat that’s been tested by Parks Authority vets contains bags and wipes which pile up and impair their digestive efficiency, causing them to suffer from extreme hunger even when food is plentiful.
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority calls on campers and hikers to reduce the use of disposable bags and wipes and to make sure not to leave any trace of these materials, thus avoiding harm to animals and the environment.
If you find an injured wild animal or a hazard, report it to the Nature and Parks Authority hotline at *3639.