Israel's winter: Rare sight of wild fox in the snow
Photographer braves freezing temperatures in Golan Heights to capture spectacular images of adorable furry critter.
The Golan Heights were covered in snow when Roni Alush, 38, a physical education teacher at the elementary school at Kibbutz Meron Golan, woke up early.
It was still dark. He geared up with a camera and a heavy snowsuit. "I go out early on weekends, before my wife and daughters wake up, to photograph landscapes and wildlife," he told Ynet.
He picked up his former student, Uri Shemesh, 16, an amateur photographer, on the way, and the two traveled in the darkness, hoping to capture the sunrise, despite the fact that the temperature was eight degrees below zero Celsius (about 17 degrees Fahrenheit).
"As we drove back after photographing a spectacular sunrise, we noticed a fox standing on the side of the road. We stopped and approached it slowly. We were afraid of startling it. He must have been full of food and didn't run away, so we could take pictures at our leisure," he said.
The two continued their drive and came across a car stopped a short distance ahead of them. "The people in the car must have stopped to take a picture of the landscape with their cell phones and kept driving. They didn't notice the fox that was right in front of them. I've developed a skill for perceiving wildlife over the years," said Alush.
Tens of thousands of Israelis made their way to the Golan Heights, the Galilee, Gush Etzion and even the Carmel Mountain on Saturday morning to enjoy the accumulating snowfall of the last few days.
