ABU DHABI, 3 April 2008 — In order to increase the number of houbara in the wild, the government of Abu Dhabi recently released more than 5,000 North African houbara bustards into a 300-km area of Morocco’s Eastern Desert.
The birds had been bred in captivity at the Emirates Center for Wildlife Propagation (ECWP) in Missour, Morocco. The release is the largest reintroduction of the endangered species of birds into the wild so far.
“This release was necessary in the wake of the continuous decline in houbara numbers due to the destruction of their wintering and breeding habitats and over-hunting, in addition to illegal trade, all of which require insistent steps to restore a healthy houbara population in the wild,” said Sheikh Mohammed ibn Zayed Al-Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
Sheikh Mohammed, who participated in the release, said the program has progressed tremendously and succeeded in creating a self-sustaining captive houbara population.
According to a statement from the Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi, efforts to conserve the houbara started as early as 1977, when the late UAE President Sheikh Zayed ibn Sultan Al-Nahyan directed Al-Ain Zoo to begin a breeding program for the Asian houbara bustard.
This was before the bird had reached a vulnerable status in the endangered birds list.
In 1982, the first captive chick saw daylight in the UAE. In 1989, the National Avian Research Center (NARC), which is currently spearheading maximum conservation efforts, was founded and later incorporated under the Environment Agency.
“The unlimited support of Sheikh Khalifa ibn Zayed Al-Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, to preserve the environment and wildlife, and develop natural resources has always given us an incentive to continue working to conserve houbara from becoming extinct,” said Sheikh Mohammed.
“We are now very excited to have helped to increase the number of houbara population in wild,” he added. About 35 percent of the released birds were fitted with satellite transmitters to track their movement.
