CNN reports that a griffon vulture that flew into Lebanon from an
Israeli nature reserve has been captured and detained on suspicion of spying
for the Jewish state. The Gamla Nature Reserve tracked the bird to the vicinity
of the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil, located just a few miles from
the Israeli border. Reports soon began trickling in that the bird was being
held by locals who suspected the giant raptor was a spy because it sported
Israeli tags and devices.
Soon after, a
series of photos surfaced. One showed the bird’s (Israeli!) tags and a rope
tied around its legs. Another highlighted a transmitter on the raptor’s back.
Yet another exhibited two men displaying the bird’s massive wingspan. The
vulture has a metal ring on its leg, courtesy of Tel Aviv University, tags on
both wings and a GPS transmitter attached to its tail, so that scientists can
identify the bird and track its movements. The bird is part of a conservation
project with the goal of restoring the species to its former range throughout
the Middle East. A range, incidentally, many, many times larger than the state
of Israel.
The bird is just one of many animals detained in the region over the years on suspicion of spying for the Israelis. A little over a year ago I reported on a stork that was jailed in Egypt
under nearly identical circumstances. (See "Stork Busters" post of 11/9/2014, replete with a photo of the poor bird languishing in a dingy jail cell).
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