Carcasses and remains of some 30 white storks electrocuted on power lines were found Monday north of the Pezael Junction in the Jordan Valley, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) reported.

The grisly spectacle repeats itself annually in the area, as a large waste site attracts the birds, which like to settle on electric cables and poles.

“The danger arises primarily from poles that have exposed electrical components,” explained Yotam Bashan, a senior ornithologist at SPNI, who discovered the dead birds while driving along the north-to-south Route 90. “When storks land on a pole or spread their wings on it, they can simultaneously touch two points with different electrical currents, or a conductive component and a grounded part of the pole,” he went on. “This closes an electrical circuit through the bird’s body, and the result is electrocution, which usually ends in death.”

Yoav Perlman, Director of the SPNI’s Ornithology Center, said, “Year after year, over the past 10 years, this power line kills many white storks during migration seasons and many black kites during the winter season.”

Perlman called on the Israel Electric Corporation to act immediately to insulate or bury all power lines in the........

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