\ LEBANON Mediterranean Sea Tel Aviv I Beit Shean • Jerusalem Glenn Triest The Elephant Keeper Former Wayne State University professor Hezy Shoshani has been studying the evolution of elephants for years. Now he wants to bring them to a new safari park in Israel. KIMBERLY LIFTON Staff Writer H anging on oppo- site walls in Hezy Shoshani's Bloomfield Hills condominium are two huge photographs of African elephants. Nearby, a planter molded into the shape of an elephant sits on the floor. Notes are scribbled on scratch pads disguised as elephants. Throughout the house is more elephant parapher- nalia — newspaper clipp- ings, files of countless slides and black-and-white glossy photographs, authentic bones, cartoons, coffee mugs and drawings by children. And wandering aimlessly throughout the townhouse is little Shafan, a pet hyrax Shoshani transported direct- ly from Israel. The size of a cat, the hyrax, a mammal, is 84 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1989 the closest living relative to Shoshani's favorite animal, the elephant. Shafan's Hebrew name translates to mean the hidden one. "I couldn't keep an elephant at home, so I got its closest relative," says Shoshani, an Israeli who moved to Michigan in 1969 to study veterinary medicine and found his niche studying Proboscidea, or mammals with tusks. Shoshani, who holds a doc- torate from Wayne State University, taught there for 19 years. Now he is a resear- ch associate at Cranbrook Institute of Science and a geology teacher at Oakland Community College. He has a new plan to con- tinue research. He hopes to move to Africa or Israel to study the mammals more closely. But first, he must complete a mission to help his native homeland. A recently created safari park, called Ganei Chuga in Beit Shean, Israel, needs animals. Shoshani, who met a Beit Shean family during a working trip two years ago to Africa, was contacted by Beit Shean municipal offi- cials to be the project's scien- tific adviser. "My job is to bring elephants to the park in Israel," he says. "This would be attractive to tourists and academicians. It would be the first park of its kind in the Middle East." Located at the lowest altitude in the world at 250 meters below sea level, the grounds for the park would enable scientists to test liv- ing conditions of the animals at that altitude. Also touted as a haven for tourists, it would allow visitors to ride atop elephants. South of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River, Ganei Chuga, the 300-acre park in- corporates parts of Nahal Harod, a tributary of the Jordan River. About a quarter of the park will be set aside for recreational purposes; the rest will be fenced off so animals can roam freely. Visitors to the park will have five options for enter- ing the grounds. In addition to riding through the park on a tame elephant, tourists can follow a footpath along guided trails, ride in a vehi- cle along the park's main road, ride in a vehicle along roads inside the safari park and float in a rubber boat along the Nahal Harod river. The animals to be housed there will differ from those kept at other nature parks in the Middle East. The park plans to purchase eight elephants, two giraffes, two okapis, two rhinoceroses and 14 other animals. Using such game animals, Shoshani says, will enable scientists from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem universities to conduct behavioral, ecological and physiological experiments. Shoshani, dressed in Mid- dle Eastern sandals, jeans and a T-shirt displaying an elephant, talks passionately about the park. He needs help in raising about $1 million to bring the elephants and other animals to the park. He is targeting Michigan investors. The money, he says, would cover building costs for the animals' facility, upkeep, food, his salary as adviser and salaries for seven employees. The Israeli government and three kibbutzim are offering financial assistance. Bethlehem ISRAEL JORDAN 50 miles Hezy Shoshani (photo above) is trying to raise $1 million for a new safari park in Israel. The map above shows the location of the proposed park site.