Northern Bald Ibis

Northern Bald Ibis is considered to be rarest of all birds in Middle-East Asia. It is identified as “Critically Endangered” by the IUCN red list. In late 90s the bird was believed to be extinct in Middle East, only very few(few hundreds) remaining in southern Morocco. Fortunately the bird was rediscovered in 2002 by researchers in Syria in the ancient city of Palmyra. Now it is their last known refuge in the region with less than even 10 in numbers.

The Northern Bald Ibis was once widespread across the Middle East, northern Africa, and southern Europe, with a fossil record dating back at least 1.8 million years. In the reigns of pharaos in Egypt, it is considered to be holy bird and a symbol of brilliance and splendour.  In Turkish belief, the Northern Bald Ibis was one of the first birds that Noah released from the Ark as a symbol of fertility.

Though the reasons for the species’ long-term decline are unclear, but hunting, loss of foraging habitat, and pesticide poisoning are believed to be culprits. In spite of many efforts from naturalists to protect this rare bald Ibis, the number is significantly decreasing in wild. There is a new fuel to this effort when Turkish government has recently donated six semi-captive birds to Syria in the hope of preventing disappearance of this species from middle east. The Turkish goverment and National Parks established a new semi-wild colony at Birecik after the disappearance of the apecies in wild in the country. This is heavily managed, with birds taken into captivity after the breeding season to prevent migration. The program is a success, and now the goverment is giving helping hand to the last Syrian wild population.

The donated are released to the exisitng wild population and researchers believe that they will soon follow the wilds.  Two of the wild adult birds and the released juveniles have been fitted with satellite tracking devices, allowing researchers to monitor their movements.

The birds can be tracked online via this website http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/tracking/northernbaldibis/