London - Sheeffah Shiraz
Sudanese officials have captured a vulture which they suspect was sent by Israel on a spying mission. The electronically-tagged bird was discovered in the town of Kereinek in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
The vulture - which supposedly can fly up to 375 miles a day - was fitted with GPS and solar-powered equipment and is capable of broadcasting images via satellite. A tag was also found attached to its leg with the text: \"Israel Nature Service\" and \"Hebrew University, Jerusalem\". This has lead officials to believe that it was sent on an Israeli surveillance mission.
Although Israeli officials have acknowledged that the bird had indeed been tagged with Israeli equipment, they insist it was being used to study migration patterns and not to \"spy\".
Ohad Hazofe, an ecologist for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, told Ynet, the Israeli news site, that vultures are routinely tagged and fitted with a GPS chip for research purposes.
\"This is a young vulture that was tagged, along with 100 others in October. He has two wing bands and a German-made GPS chip,\" Hazofe said, but added that the device has no photography capabilities.