Turkey: bird suspected of spying for Israel is cleared
A bird tagged with a metallic ring that was recently captured in a Turkish village in the eastern province of Elazığ is not spying for Israel, Turkish officials have determined.
Residents of Altınavya became concerned when they saw that the metallic ring was stamped with the words "24311 Tel Avivunia Israel,” the Dogan News Agency reported.
District officials sent the bird, a small kestrel, to Fırat University in Elazığ, where veterinary hospital personnel x-rayed it to make sure it was not carrying microchips or any other spy devices. The technicians – jokingly, we assume – labeled the x-rays, “Israeli spy.”
'The bird’s metal leg band was found to be nothing more than a tag used to track bird migrations.
Turkish officials said in a statement that they released the falsely accused bird back into the wild.
More from GlobalPost: Navy mine-hunting dolphins to be replaced by robots
Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you. We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
Make a gift today, and you’ll help us unlock a matching gift of $67,000!