IFHC successfully releases seven captive-bred Asian Houbara in Kazakhstan

posted on 07/04/2011: 80 views

The International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) recently announced the success of their first controlled experiment to release seven captive bred Asian Houbara into the wild in Kazakhstan.

The aim behind the release was to find out if the Houbara were able to survive in the wild and migrate. If they were able to migrate, the study could show whether the captive bred Asian Houbara could identify their migration route merely by hereditary instinct or by emulating the behavior of the elder wild Houbara living in the same region.

The group of seven captive bred Kazakh Houbara included four male birds and three females with the release taking place in the birds' original habitat, Kazakhstan. Mohammed Al Baidani Director General of the IFHC said "The data provided by the satellite tracking showed that the birds left the Kazakh lands in October 2009 at the beginning of the winter migration season.

Two males survived into spring 2010 and both returned to West-Kazakhstan. The male that had wintered in Turkmenistan in 2009-2010 left Kazakhstan around the 5th of November 2010 and reached Iraq around the 9th. This bird spent the 2010-2011 winter there and is still monitored. The other male left Kazakhstan on the 27th of October 2010 but its transmitter stopped emitting on the 31st October, in West Turkmenistan.

Al Baidani added: "the tracking devices showed that the migration routes of the captive bred Houbara were similar to those of the wild Asian Houbara of the western region of Kazakhstan." The release has dispelled concerns that the captive bred Asian Houbara might not be able to discover their migration route or even survive until the beginning of the migration season due to early snow or unexpected cold weather conditions.

The exciting results also have a strategic impact on captive breeding and release programmes across the range countries as researchers uncover more information about the Houbara, its habitats and traditional migration routes in a bid to prevent its declining number and extinction.

IFHC follows the strategy of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the UAE by breeding and releasing 50,000 Houbara per year across IFHC centres in Morocco, UAE, Kazakhstan, China and Turkmenistan thereby restoring some of the wild Houbara population. - Emirates News Agency, WAM

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