3 Saudis held for hunting endangered animals

Egyptian wildlife police arrested three armed Saudi men and their local driver after they were caught hunting endangered animals in the Arab country’s largest wildlife reserve.

Saudi newspapers said the three and the Egyptian driver were held inside the southern Jabal Elba reserve near the border with Sudan.

They quoted Egyptian police and wildlife guards as saying several dead dear, hares and other endangered animals were found in their vehicle.

“Police also found a head of the endangered Barbay sheep which they had killed. The three confessed to killing those animals,” Sada daily said.

It said the arms and ammunition seized with the three are made in Israel.

The Barbary sheep is native to the mountains in North Africa and is one of the most endangered animals in the world. Egypt has been locked in a programme to breed the animal in its Red Sea Jabal Elba reserve, which has an area of nearly 35,000 square kilometres, more than 50 times the size of Bahrain.