Release target for Asian Houbara

Release target for Asian Houbara

At the Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) announced it has exceeded yearly expectations of Asian Houbara released into the wild. This year has been remarkable in terms of success. They have exceeded their target of releasing 10,000 birds by 3,000 bringing that number up to a total of 13,000 Asian Hubbard birds produced in the UAE. 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 were accustomed 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. It is a big leap from the 2,726 chicks bred last year, thanks to the transfer of 5,000 houbara, including 3,000 breeding birds, from the IFHC centre in Morocco. They were asked to complete an IFHC survey that will give a realistic number of houbara needed to meet the demands of the local falconry market. A total of 5,373 chicks hatched at the new Sheikh Khalifa Houbara Breeding Centre at Saih Al Salem, and 7,732 at the National Avian Research Centre. The International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) bred more than 13,000 Asian Houbara chicks in this year’s season, it announced yesterday