Mini Report Practice

Falconers aid houbara survival

 

 At the Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (ADIHEX), the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) announced it has exceeded yearly expectations of Asian houbara released into the wild. This year has been significant in terms of success. Some hunters are poaching the houbara by killing it using shotguns, giving the bird a zero survival chance in that case, as opposed to the slight chance of escape the Houbara gets when being hunted by a falcon. A reason for this is the difference in mentality that modern hunters have as opposed to their forefathers who grew up in harsh conditions and  accustmed to giving back to nature as much as they took from it.

Another reason, the Director General revealed, is that many trap these birds and take them from their habitats in order to train their falcons how to hunt. Many falconers have drifted away from traditional methods of hunting, by over-trapping houbara birds, which are not the falcon’s natural prey in the first place. Throughout the Exhibition’s four days, the IFHC will be distributing surveys aimed at falconers to determine how many houbara birds will be needed to be bred, and how severe over-trapping is. Another issue we face is that we cannot determine the size of the black market, which is why these surveys are important.

The survey will indicate how many wild birds are trapped and which areas require the reintroduction programme. IFHC believes that some people are overhunting in some places, that some people are not using the traditional method of hunting and [are] using shotguns, We need to develop a strategy of how to work for these people so it's very important to know what they have in mind.  The survey will give clues to past houbara behaviour. This will hopefully mean houbara will not be taken from the wild to train falcons. Actually, the hunting exhibition is the best place to help us be in contact as much as we can with falconers, and this gives us a very good indication of the hunting pressure and the problems these birds are facing.