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Can Golan Heights' vultures be saved?

Faced with poisoning by cattle breeders, the vultures of the Golan Heights are practically extinct, with only five still alive.
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A picture on social media May 10 showed eight vulture carcasses lying side by side, all of them victims of poisoning. The snapshot sums up the tragedy of the griffon vulture population in the Golan Heights, which until a decade ago numbered about 130. Today, there are no more than five of them left. On May 12, the police reportedly arrested a 30-year-old man who is suspected of poisoning the vultures.

The Eurasian vulture, also called the biblical vulture, weighs no more than eight kilos (about 18 pounds) and has a wingspan of up to 2.80 meters (9 feet). This vulture feeds on carcasses and is prevalent in Mediterranean basin countries. For many years, numerous vultures nested in the Gamla Stream cliffs of the Golan Heights and were a tourist attraction. Tens of thousands of visitors flocked to the nature reserve to observe the vulture colony that nested in the cliffs above the stream. However, over the years the vultures have fallen victim to systematic poisoning attempts. The worst instance of poisoning took place in 1998 when about 40 vultures were found dead after eating the carcasses of poisoned cattle or wild animals.

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