

Israel already uses spy drones, automated sentry towers, and slew of sophisticated sensors, to keep watch over its borders. The latest addition to the arsenal: a group of eight African antelope, each weighing nearly 1100 pounds.

The antelope have been stationed on Israel's border with Lebanon, to eat up the "problematic foliage that distorts views of the Lebanese side and within which

Hezbollah guerrillas could hide,"* Ha'Aretz *reports.

The beasts, known as "elands," were introduced to Israel from east Africa in the 1970s, to fill zoos. But when these animals "impressive chewing abilities were discovered," the animals were recruited by the military.

"The elands eat tremendous quantities and do a wonderful job clearing the weeds at enormous or secret military installations, and in places were there are ammunition storerooms, where the fear of fires is greater," says Yossi Ben tells Ha'Aretz. "In these places the elands save on manpower and obviate the need for spraying chemical herbicides."

There are now "between

500 and 700 elands" at military bases throughout Israel, according to the paper. And its not the Israeli Defense Forces' only four-legged deployment. The Israel Prison Service uses special microphone and audio-processing software to interpret dogs' barks into alarms. And "infantry units have also used llamas to transport supplies into Lebanon."

[Photo: Wei]