Rare footage: snake eats frog in central Jerusalem park

A rare wildlife scene was captured in Jerusalem’s Valley of the Gazelles Park, where a Montpellier snake was filmed eating a stream frog. The photos were taken by Victor Fridyaev, a volunteer at the park for the Society for the Protection of Nature, during preparations for the site’s reopening.

The urban nature park, named for Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel and owned by Jerusalem Municipality, is managed by the Society for the Protection of Nature. It reopened on Friday after several weeks of closure over fears of foot-and-mouth disease spreading and harming the park’s gazelle herd.

Amir Balban, head of urban nature at the Society for the Protection of Nature, said, “This is what happens to a huge nature park that is closed for a few weeks and left empty of people. Nature celebrates with all its strength.” He said June is the best month for reptiles in the park and in Israel generally, and that the valley has two snake species, the Montpellier snake and the black whip snake, which divide the area between them.

Balban added that trail mowing will be carried out in the coming days as part of summer preparations, and said visitors now have an opportunity to come, borrow binoculars and look for wildlife from hides and paths. He said lucky visitors may also see a Montpellier snake in action. The snake, he said, climbs trees and walls, hunts eggs, chicks, lizards and stream frogs, and may itself be eaten if it meets a black whip snake. He also said the snakes help regulate rodents and amphibians, and that their dominance means Jerusalem has among the fewest reports of Palestine vipers, so few that there is almost no work for snake catchers in the capital.