Dead vultures in Gamla

One of the last places in Israel to see Griffon vultures is in the Gamla nature preserve in the Golan. Gamla is a stunning valley with the sort of cliffs that give the vultures a good place to nest and perch (we all know how vultures like to perch). There were reports in the 1800s of hundreds of vultures in Gamla. Various forces reduced the population, the most prominent being the (forced?) departure of the farmers whose herds the vultures fed upon, and secondary poisoning -- the vultures would find some animal killed by poision, eat the animal, and die themselves. But up until this year, there were still forty breeding pairs in Gamla, which is still quite a crowd. Sadly, now all but two are dead, victims of some sort of mass poisoning. One of the rangers, an Israeli woman in her twenties, told me that they searched all over Israel but couldn't find the source of the poison. Since the birds can fly up to 300 kilometers looking for food, it may not even have come from Israel, but they'll never know -- Syria won't even talk to Israel and the Lebanese weren't so interested in investigating Israeli vultures.

The ranger told me it was as good as certain that by this time next year there would be no more vultures in the Golan, just as she was sure that in a few years there would be no more Golan to visit at all. At least not in Israel. She and others I've spoken to feel pretty hopeless about the current government, and are convinced that the Golan will be back in Syrian hands within a few years.