Ranger saves life of buzzard with bottle cap stuck in throat
Bird lands next to nature reserve inspector, recovers quickly once the cap is removed; Nature and Parks Authority: ‘Trash harms wildlife, take it home’
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
A long-legged buzzard would have buzzed off his mortal coil had he not landed right next to a nature ranger who was able to remove a plastic bottle cap from his throat.
The bird, with a mineral water cap stuck in its gullet, landed on Tuesday near Itamar Telkar, an Israel Nature and Parks Authority inspector responsible for the Ein Prat Nature Reserve in the West Bank, northeast of Jerusalem.
According to Telker, after the cap was removed and the bird had drunk some water, it recovered and was released back into the wild to fly off.
The authority works to explain the damage that trash left in nature — most of which is not biodegradable — causes to wildlife and the environment.
Dozens of goats die every year from eating tissues and other waste in the south of the country. Sea turtles and marine animals get entangled in nets and plastic bags that are thrown into the sea or left on beaches, and animals can suffocate to death from cans and plastic boxes.
Popular with visitors, Ein Prat is a spring that provides gushing water to a year-round stream that flows through a spectacular desert canyon.
The water and the vegetation around it attract rich wildlife — from fish, crabs, and invertebrates to songbirds, birds of prey, rock hyrax, gazelles, foxes, porcupines, and caracals.
