Owls and kestrels are being employed as agricultural pest controllers in the Middle East.

Many farmers are installing nest boxes to encourage the birds, which hunt the crop-damaging rodents.

In Israel, where there is a drive to reduce the use of toxic chemical pesticides, this has been turned into a government-funded national programme.

Scientists and conservation charities from Jordan and Palestine have joined the scheme.

According to the charity BirdLife International, hundreds of birds of prey – including many endangered species – have been killed in Israel through eating rodents containing poisonous “rodenticides” sprayed on to crop fields.

But scientists in Israel are now working with farmers to combat this problem – deploying the birds as natural pest controllers.

“There is a real need to reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture here,” said Motti Charter, a researcher from Tel Aviv University and team leader of the Global Owl Project in Israel. 

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