Petting Zoo of Abu Kabir

The idea for the petting zoo came to park director Dr. Chezi Avivi when he served as a visiting teacher in an eighth grade classroom several years ago. He showed the students a variety of birds, and a blind girl in the room asked if she could touch one of the birds in order to "see" it. He invited her to touch the bird and she exclaimed, "I didn't know that birds only have two feet!" She had thought that birds, like cats and dogs, all had four feet.

The thousands of students who visit the garden every year, from ordinary schools and from special frameworks, don't just sit passively. The staff of professional instructors, who have a high level of awareness of the requirements of working with children with special needs, use educational aids to help the children enjoy the creative and varied experience available to others. Deer, pelicans, ducks and many other birds and reptiles roam freely around the park providing an opportunity for direct contact with the animals.

The garden is part of a large network of animal and nature parks established by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). The petting zoo project is run in conjunction with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (which, with its broad range of social projects and research in Israel, is involved in many other projects for handicapped people), the Social Security Institute and the Ministry of Education.

How do birds fly?
And why don't they get tired?
And how do they stay in the air and not fall?
And why don't they fly into things?
And why does each fly differently?
One floating and one diving?
One flies straight, one in circles and one in leaps?
And who painted their feathers?
And why do some run across the ground?
And others hop?
And why do they migrate?
And why do they return?
And who taught them the song they sing?
And why are there birds which flock?
And why are there others always alone or in pairs?
And at night when they sleep, what do they do with their wings?
And where do they rest their heads? And what do they do with their beaks?
And how do they cover up against the cold?
And is it very dangerous to be a bird?
And why don't they fall off the branch when they sleep?
And what do they dream?
And do they notice that I'm always looking up at the sky?
And do they know how I envy them
Because of their wings?