Hundreds of Mice Committing Suicide
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TEL AVIV — Hundreds of mice are committing suicide by jumping off cliffs in the Golan Heights in an instinctive, lemming-like reaction to overpopulation, scientists report.
About 150 dead mice were counted at the bottom of one Golan cliff, according to Yeroham Kantman, a nature expert at the Keshet Field School near the Israeli-Syrian border.
Kantman told reporters that he also saw groups of rodents walking off other cliffs in the Israeli-occupied territory.
He said there probably is not sufficient food and living space for the estimated 250 million mice of the Golan.
The mice population in the territory has dropped noticeably in recent months, much to the delight of area farmers, the daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported. However, the owl population, which survives on a large food supply of rodents, may suffer.
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