Bird that flew from
Israeli nature reserve into Lebanon caught by locals suspicious of its
transmitter
Tuesday 26 January
2016 18.31 GMTLast modified on Tuesday 26 January 201623.25 GMT
A vulture from an Israeli
nature reserve has been captured in Lebanon on
suspicion of espionage after flying across the border, Israel’s nature reserve
authority has said.
Members of the Israeli
public phoned the Israel Nature
and Parks Authority to alert it to Facebook reports and pictures of a vulture
with an Israeli identification ring and location transmitter captured by
residents of the south Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, a spokeswoman, Tali Tenenbaum,
said.
“Reports passed to us
show the vulture tied with a rope by local people who write that they suspect
Israeli espionage apparently because of the transmitter attached to him,” the
authority said.
“In the 21st century, we
expect people to understand that wild animals are not harmful,” it added. “We
hope that the Lebanese will release him.”
Tenenbaum said the
authority’s experts had been aware for some days that it had flown about 2.5
miles (four kilometres) into Lebanon. “But we did not know he’d been captured,”
she said.
Reports later said the
bird had been freed after it was deemed not to pose a threat.
Conspiracy theories are
endemic in the Middle East. Last summer, Palestinian media reported claims by
the Gaza Strip’s
Hamas rulers that they had apprehended a dolphin off their Mediterranean
coastline equipped with video cameras for an Israeli spying mission.
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