Three endangered vultures found dead in southern Israel after suspected poisoning

Three endangered griffon vultures were found dead in southern Israel on Friday, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority said, calling the incident a suspected case of  of malicious poisonings.

The vultures were found at Ein Akev in southern Israel after exhibiting low flying in recent days, which suggests pending death.

Authority inspectors scanned the areas visited by the vultures in the past week, based on information received from transmitters attached to the birds.

But by the time the inspectors managed to find the vultures, they were already dead.

They were taken to a veterinary facility in Beit Dagan for further investigation and the Nature and Parks Authority has opened a probe into the circumstances leading to their deaths.

The incident is the latest in several suspected poisonings in recent years, which have had a “serious impact on the population of vultures in southern Israel,” said a statement issued by the authority.

The authority added that food is always distributed in feeding stations across Israel’s desert so as to prevent vultures and other wild animals from eating poisoned meat, but these efforts and others are not always enough to prevent such cases.

An inspector of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority approaches the carcass of a griffon vulture in southern Israel, on October 14, 2022. (Israel Nature and Parks Authority)

One year ago, 12 griffon vultures were found dead in the area of the Kina and Kamrir streambeds in southern Israel, in an incident that served a major blow to Israel’s population of vultures.

Earlier that year, some 20 wild animals, including a rare and endangered white-tailed eagle, were found dead near Kadita in central Galilee, apparently after they were poisoned by pesticides.

And in May 2019, eight griffon vultures were found dead in the Golan Heights after being poisoned, and two were treated for poisoning, in an incident that was seen as devastating to the species in the region.

In many cases, vultures are poisoned by eating the carcass of a predator killed by farmers to protect their livestock.

In recent years, the Nature and Parks Authority has made significant efforts to conserve and rebuild the local vulture population. Last August 2020, the organization reported that griffon vulture numbers were at an eight-year high, although the population was still endangered.