Police find four rare parrots stolen from Israeli zoo in West Bank city

Police yesterday recovered four rare parrots that had been stolen from a petting zoo in northern Israel and smuggled to the West Bank around three weeks ago.

They are four of seven valuable birds that were poached by animal traffickers during a break-in to Jungle Fun Zoo in Kibbutz Beit Zera, police say.

The recovery comes after police on Friday tracked down 36 other birds that had been stolen the day before, from the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. Police found the birds in Hableh, a West Bank Palestinian village adjacent to the Green Line.

The four birds rescued yesterday were found in Tulkarem, a spokesman says today. Officers believe that the same gang of traffickers is to blame for the burglaries.

The birds are all various breeds of macaw, and collectively worth NIS 250,000 ($69,000). They were transferred to the Nature and Parks Authority for examination and treatment before being passed back to the zoo.