We are at Omrit for archeology, but it is easy to get distracted by the local wildlife. At least, I get distracted; everyone else just squish the spiders on sight get back to digging.

Beyond the dig site stretch hills covered in golden fields of grass and spattered with the round, violet clusters of Globe-thistles. Amongst this austere beauty leap packs of Syrian Rock Hyraxes like so many exotic Guinea Pigs.

That is so damn cute.
— Max Dietrich

The resemblance to the Guinea Pig is superficial, as the closest living relatives of the Hyrax are Elephants and Manatees (Hyraxes even have a pair of little tusk-like teeth). They are known to make a loud grunting noise when they chew, and this has caused them to be mistaken for ruminants in Leviticus 11:4-8 and designated as non-Kosher.

The insects abound. The Kibbutz where we stay has already been visited by an elegant giant moth and ghostly white praying mantis. In square J21 alone I coexist with all sorts of cute critters: centipedes, scorpions, fire ants, spider ants, jumping spiders, big spiders, little spiders, black spiders, white spiders, striped spiders, and even a mother spider tending her brood of spiderlings.

With so many spiders around, it is little surprise that a few of spider wasps have made homes in in the rocks nearby. These wasps paralyze spiders with their sting and implant them with eggs. Once the larvae hatch they eat their way out of the host spider: Alien-style. Between the cattle and the wasps (which also live in Williamstown) the fauna at Horvat Omrit can be surprisingly familiar.