Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Desert hopes

2009; Elsevier BV; Volume: 19; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.cub.2009.03.009

1879-0445

Nigel Williams,

Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology

A team of British researchers left for Syria earlier this month to help track the critically endangered Northern Bald Ibis, following the discovery of a relic population of just a handful of birds at a site near Palmyra in 2002. The move follows a successful workshop last year, organised by the Syrian Society for the Conservation of Wildlife, the Syrian ministry of agriculture, with participants also from BirdLife International, the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Germany's Hanns Seidel Foundation. The aim is to build on the success of a project at Birecik in Turkey, where semi-captive birds have been maintained for the past 20 years. The birds have been kept in aviaries during the winter to prevent them from a perilous migration south to Africa and Arabia but are released in spring to nest locally in natural sites or man-made boxes, and recaptured at the end of summer. Between 1990 and 1998 the number of birds in the breeding colony fluctuated between 32 and 60 but declined to 41 by the end of 2001, after little or no recruitment in the previous years. It was then that the RSPB and BirdLife in Turkey became involved. They had two short-term objectives: improve the husbandry and management of the aviaries so that local conditions would improve; and develop and improve local education and tourist facilities and strategies to increase knowledge and awareness about the ibis and promote income-earning related to this economically deprived region of Turkey. The revived project has been a success with the population reaching more than 100 birds last year. And in Turkey, the project is one of the few known at the national level, and the breeding centre has become a major tourist attraction. Locally, the importance of the ibis is increasing — it is the main symbol of Birecik. Images of the bird form part of the local council's logo and that of many other businesses. The mayor of Birecik organises a Northern Bald Ibis festival every year. “It is doubtful whether there is a stronger link between a human settlement and a threatened bird species anywhere in the world,” says the International Advisory Group of the Northern Bald Ibis. “The level of local ownership, and interest, on the plight of the species is unparalleled.” But conservationists fear that the Turkish colony is losing the knowledge of how to migrate, so the discovery of the Syrian birds caused considerable hope.The plan now is to create another semi-captive colony to bolster the few birds in Syria and to possibly use genetically related birds from Birecik. “Thorough discussions on potential for supplementation of Northern Bald Ibis from other colonies were conducted, and risks involved were elaborated,” said Akram Eissa Darwish, chairman of the Syrian Society for the Conservation of Wildlife. “Participants concluded that this is an urgently needed step, provided that experts offer their technical knowledge and apply the suitable methodology. The final decision from participants was to establish a captive breeding colony at Palmyra, to act as a ready established option for supplementation, and promote ecotourism in the area.” Chris Bowden of the RSPB explained that captive breeding was a last resort, as there is no guarantee of success following a total breeding failure at the colony in the past year. “If fewer than two pairs attempt to breed next year, we will hit the emergency button. The Birecik birds are genetically similar and so are the obvious source for supplementation.” Juvenile birds would be taken from Birecik to form a captive breeding colony, using adapted compounds that were previously used for captive breeding of the Arabian Oryx. “On the face of it, it seems straightforward to do, but the birds are socially particularly complex, and there are risks of disease. The project will require very careful implementation,” Bowden said. However, the Syrian government, local Bedouins, former hunters and others are firmly committed to the survival of the Palmyra colony. “The workshop demonstrated the increased national and local sense of ownership of bird conservation. This is not always the easiest thing to achieve, and local stakeholders showed a keen interest to learn about where their birds go, and what other countries are doing, and to support international cooperation, said Eng Ali Hamoud, director general of the General Commission for the Management and Development of the local region, al-Badia. And one biologist eagerly pursued satellite-tagged birds from Syria which appeared to end up in Ethiopia. Cagan Sekercioglu, a biologist who has championed several key Turkish conservation efforts, joined an international team to locate migrating birds from Syria in the remote regions of Ethiopia. And they found them, adding hope that this rarest of birds can be supported and still maintain its natural migratory behaviour.