Good News

In ancient Egypt, the Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita was considered a sacred creature, but in modern times it is now one of the rarest birds in the world.

It is a medium-size bird, about 75 cms long, and weighs about 1 kilogram. It is easy to identify, with its metallic black and green body, tufted crown of feathers, and long, sickle-shaped beak. It is a gregarious species that nests in cliff top colonies.

Until the seventeenth century, Northern Bald Ibis populations occurred in the Rhine Valley through Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, and parts of what used to be Yugoslavia, in north Africa and in Turkey and the Middle East.

In the early twentieth century in the Middle East, it still nested in six colonies in Syria, along the Euphrates River and along the Syrian-African Rift and apparently also in Wadi Zerqa Ma'in in Jordan.

In more recent times the irrevocable decline of the Birecik colony in south-east Turkey is well documented from 600-800 pairs in 1954 to only 6 pairs in 1980, and last bred in wild there in 1989. In Syria it was formerly known to breed in remote semi-desert wadis and hills north of a line between Al Qaryatayn and Tadmurand the last known colony at Jabal Abu Rujmayn was last surveyed in 1928.

The persistence of continued nesting in Syria has long been suspected due to continued winter occurrences in Yemen and Saudi Arabia after the breeding birds at Birecik had been taken into captivity as part of a captive breeding programme in the 1990's.

There are now only 65 breeding pairs of Northern Bald Ibis left in the wild. The entire population is centred around the Souss-Massa National Park and the Tamri area in Morocco. The Northern Bald Ibis is classified as Critically Endangered according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List criteria. This means it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future.

The good news (from a BirdLife International Press Release 8 July 2002)

A new colony of critically endangered Northern Bald Ibises has been discovered in an Al Badia (desertic steppe) area of central Syria, BirdLife International announced today. [1,2]. The small colony contains three pairs which were discovered incubating eggs, and a seventh adult.

This is the first evidence of the continued breeding of Northern Bald Ibises in the Middle East since a colony at Birecek in Turkey became extinct in 1989. Since then there have been sporadic sightings in Saudi Arabia and
Eritrea, suggesting that a breeding population still existed somewhere in the region.

The new birds were found in spring 2002 by a team carrying out wildlife surveys on behalf of the Syrian Government’s Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (MAAR).

Survey Team leader, Associate Professional Officer, Wildlife Expert, Gianluca Serra said, "Discovering this bird was like finding the Arabian Phoenix regenerated from the ashes. The survey work through remote and rough
terrain was some of the most exciting and challenging fieldwork we had ever experienced. Throughout it all, my Syrian colleagues from MAAR, Ghazy Al-Qaim and Mahmoud Abdallah, were optimistic that Northern Bald Ibises still existed in the Al Badia or desertic steppe of central Syria because we had received reports of their presence from Bedouin nomads and local hunters, such as Mr Adib Assaed of Palmyra, who was instrumental in locating the birds."

The project staff responded quickly to the important discovery. Two guards, Talal Fayad and A. Abdallah, both trained as birdwatching and eco-tourist guides at the Al Talila reserve, were appointed to watch over the colony 24 hours a day and collect data on the breeding cycle.

Dr Michael Rands, Director of BirdLife International, said "This fascinating species, once common throughout much of the Middle East and southern Europe, is now on the brink of global extinction, despite much conservation effort in Morocco and Turkey. This fantastic discovery gives new hope that the Northern Bald Ibis can be saved, and the BirdLife Partnership will do all it can to assist the Syrian authorities to conserve this amazing threatened species for future generations to enjoy."

The discovery was made within the framework of a "Range Rehabilitation and Establishment of a Wildlife Reserve in the Syrian Steppe" project, funded by the Italian Government through a co-operation programme aimed at developing countries and implemented by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The project is assisting the efforts of the Syrian Government to promote and implement natural resource and biodiversity conservation within the country. The discovery was made at the end of an extensive two-year programme of wildlife surveys aimed at producing a biodiversity inventory for Al Talila Reserve, the first Syrian protected area and which will soon be open to visitors.

Gianluca Serra together with Syrian colleagues Ghazy Al-Qaim and Mahmoud Abdallah, on the wildlife survey.