Cats, bats and rats.

(From Jerusalem Post)

Byline: MEIR RONNEN

BROOKLYN-BORN animal illustrator Walter Ferguson is an Israeli phenonemon. He first visited here in 1958 and settled in Israel in 1965. The following year he was appointed staff artist to the Department of Zoology at Tel Aviv University, where he also studied taxonomy. Since then he has written and illustrated a number of definitive books on the flora and fauna of the Holy Land. His meticulous and lifelike illustrations form the basis of his newest and quite monumental work, The Mammals of Israel (160pp, with several hundred illustrations in color, published by Gefen of Jerusalem, NIS 160 or $40).

Ferguson's scientific gazetteer takes up as much space as his illustrations. He reminds us that here, as elsewhere, man was once surrounded by animals, but now the animals are surrounded by man, many bent on their destruction. Farms, farmers, poisons and automatic weapons have wiped out 10% of the species that once roamed the land. New roads further shrink natural habitats.

And so in this book Ferguson also illustrates mammals long gone or now seen only in zoos, like the lion, once hunted here to be sent to to Rome to fight gladiators (or to publicly consume, one supposes, Jews for Jesus). He marvels that there are still a few leopards in the desert around the Dead Sea, but doesn't mention that the last female died a year or so ago.

Ferguson's introduction to local zoogeography begins with the Cretaceous and points out that after many climatic changes, the local mammals of the hot and humid Oligocene were similar to those of Africa. This was before the emergence of the Great Rift Valley, but the Arava retained a connection with Africa. Interestingly, Ferguson points out that our myriad desert dwellers were in the area before it became a desert; it was once mostly savannah.

Apart from listing many mutations, Ferguson's Systematic List comprises 96 extant endemic species, six more extirpated in historic times, three introduced feral species and two reintroduced species. Many of the little fellers are shrews, voles, gerbils, rats, bats, and hedgehogs, to name only a few. The carnivores are led by wolves and jackals and the Syrian bear. The asiatic cheetah is no longer seen here but there are caracals and wild cats; and there are mongooses and porcupines near built-up areas, like in the valley between Ein Karem and Motza, which is also a haven for jackals.