Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter. A lappet-faced vulture visits the Hai Bar Nature Reserve at Yotvata in southern Israel, April 29 2021. (Noam Weiss/ International Birding and Research Center, Eilat) Last month, the chief scientist of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority witnessed the appearance in Israel of a species recorded as extinct, for the second time in his career. The first time was in 2011 when the Hula painted frog, endemic to the Hula marshes of northern Israel, was rediscovered. It was thought to be extinct in the wild as a result of habitat destruction during the 1950s.