NABLUS, Thursday, August 22, 2019 (WAFA) – The Environmental Quality Authority (EQA) and the Environmental Police freed today an eagle owl that was in the possession of a resident of the northern West Bank city of Nablus after receiving information about an eagle-owl with a fracture at the tip of its right wing, according to a statement by the EQA,

It said the eagle-owl is an endangered bird according to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and keeping or hunting it is a violation of Palestinian law.

EQA said it has liberated the bird and transferred it to the Palestinian Wildlife Medical Center at the National Zoo in Qalqilya to provide it with treatment and health care and to take care of it after it was found that its approximate age is one year.

It said the bird bears the Arabic name, eagle-owl, the English name Eurasian Eagle Owl and the scientific name, Bubo bubo. It is one of the birds of prey, a night bird and large in size that belongs to the family of real owls, as the name implies. Its size is equivalent to the size of the eagle and its length from the top of the head to the end of the tail is 70 centimeters and the length of the wings is 180 centimeters when stretched. It can eat preys between 250-300 grams every day.

Palestinian law prohibits hunting, killing, catching of endangered birds, or transporting, walking or selling them, dead or alive, and prohibits the destruction of their nests or eggs.

M.K.

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