Israel police arrest suspect in poisoning of rare vultures

Israeli police said Monday they have arrested a man suspected of poisoning nearly half the already-threatened vulture population in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

A resident of the Bedouin village of Tuba Zangariya in northern Israel was detained on Sunday and remanded in custody by a court in Tiberias, police said in a statement. Police did not mention any apparent motive, but posted a picture of a cow carcass the suspect had allegedly dosed with poison.

Local media said such poisonings in the past had been caused by farmers putting out poisoned bait to stop predators attacking their herds.

Eight out of around 20 griffon vultures left in the Golan were found dead Friday, Israel's Nature and Parks Authority head told AFP, in what he described as "a mortal blow to the birds of prey population".

A fox and two jackals were also found dead and two sick vultures were taken to a wildlife clinic for treatment, the organisation's director Shaul Goldstein said.

The vulture population on ..