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A
conservation challenge
The houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata macqueenii) is
both a breeding resident and winter visitor to the Arabian
Oryx Sanctuary. It is also the ultimate quarry of Arab
falconers and although it may have once bred throughout the
Arabian peninsula today there may be only small remnant
resident houbara populations in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and
Oman. Hunting pressure has reduced both the number of
resident houbara in the Arabian Peninsula and the number of
winter visitors from breeding grounds in central Asia.
Hunting of the houbara in Oman has long been illegal and the
Omani people do not have the tradition of falconry. Thus the
houbara has survived in Oman and in particular in the
Arabian Oryx Sanctuary where the presence of the Arabian
Oryx Project has given the bird greater protection. However,
Oman’s resident and visitor houbara populations have come
under increasing pressure from illegal hunting parties from
outside Oman and by over hunting of the migrant birds
between Oman and the breeding grounds in Asia.
Houbara
Research
Recognising the threat of increased hunting pressure the
Office of the Adviser for Conservation of the Environment
and the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development
Agency of Abu Dhabi (ERWDA) were signatories to a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) for a collaborative programme of
scientific research to support the conservation of the
houbara bustard.
The population of the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary is probably the
most important one in the Arabian Peninsula and the MoU is
intended to help conserve it by increasing the understanding
of the basic knowledge on its ecology and population
dynamics. A first visit by a team from ERWDA in 1999 and
long-term records of the Oryx Project have shown that the
houbara density is low and that breeding may not occur every
year. In early 2001 a survey of the Sanctuary, conducted by
a joint Oryx Project / ERWDA team, recorded displaying male
houbara, providing further evidence of a breeding
population.
Now entering its second year the MoU has been extended to
include further study of the houbara, improved collection of
sightings and a training element for Omani field staff.
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