DUBAI, 28 February — The National Avian Research Center (NARC) of the United Arab Emirates plans to catch wild houbara bustards in the Kingdom and Oman and fit them with satellite transmitter to carry out a study on the birds’ lifestyle.

Dr. Olivier Combreau, head of the NARC, said that the transmitter tags carried by the birds permit scientists to track them by satellite.

The houbaras will also be fitted with a ring on their talons, bearing specific numbers and the NARC’s address in Abu Dhabi. The rings will help anyone catching the bird, or finding it dead, to report the discovery.

“This procedure provides a simpler way of identifying birds that may be found dead,” Combreau told the Gulf News newspaper in an interview.

Saudi Arabia and Oman have a resident houbara population and have protected areas to secure the bird’s future.

Dr. Combreau said that it is important to collect as much information as possible about the biology of the bird, its geographical range, and any threats that it may face.

“We are confident this study will help in gaining knowledge about the bird’s migration pattern, including the important areas visited by it.”

He said the houbara is a very important bird and is used in falconry, a traditional Arab sport.

“The study will help the center to play a vital role in our understanding of the houbara ecology as well as in supporting the population growth of houbara,” he said.

The NARC has noticed a constant decline, at a rate of 15 percent per year, in the houbara bustard population in South East Asia and the CIS States due to excessive hunting and illegal trapping.

“We are closely studying houbara in different countries and noticed that the bird is facing a serious threat by a combination of detrimental factors in its wintering grounds such as Pakistan, Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, but also more and more in Central Asian states,” he pointed out.

Houbara is the favorite traditional quarry of the Arab falconers, and the NARC, which is a part of the Environment Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA), has been implementing a comprehensive conservation strategy for this bird, he noted.

The center has also done a number of surveys in spring and fall over about 20,000 kilometers of potentially suitable houbara habitat in Kazakhstan from the north of the Caspian Sea to the east of Lake Balkash, he said.

Dr. Combreau said that Kazakhstan, a key country in the biological cycle of the Asian houbara, hosts the majority of the breeding houbara in Asia and is used as a stopover by all birds migrating to breeding grounds further east.

It is therefore of great importance that the houbara populations of Kazakhstan are managed wisely to ensure a future to Arab falconry.

The houbara is found in 23 countries. Some are migratory and travel thousands of kilometers to reach their wintering grounds in the Arabian Peninsula.

The houbara and falcon satellite radio-tracking project started in 1994, and since then the NARC has released hundreds of tagged birds in the wilds of CIS States, Pakistan and China.

Dr. Combreau said that the birds are monitored via the ARGOS system that comprises three satellites in polar orbit scanning strips of 5,000 kilometers. Ground stations in France and the US receive the information from the birds’ transmitters and send it to the NARC.

The satellite monitoring of houbara is a technique that was first used by the NARC and has proved highly successful in studying the life cycle of the bird.

Dr. Combreau said the NARC has released many falcons and houbaras in Pakistan and it is possible the villagers have captured some of them. But, he said, nobody has so far contacted the center.

He said houbaras and falcons cannot be used for spying since their flights cannot be controlled and they do not return to their bases.

The NARC birds carrying transmitters are also clearly labeled with the address of the center.

“It could be the captors’ lack of knowledge that makes them suspect the birds are being used for spying. Practically, it does not make any sense,” he said, referring to accusations by two Asian countries about using the bird for spying on each other.

He said several transmitter tagged birds were still in South East Asia. It is important for the center to keep an eye on the birds’ movements, he said, adding that people should inform the center if anybody finds a dead bird, or captures living houbara or falcon.

“We have received many transmitters from Pakistan in the past where people have found the birds dead. It is helpful to us to understand the different patterns of the birds’ lives,” he noted.