Reason for Hope in Überlingen
Newsletter 12/08/2017
According to our project´s motto, we´re regularly organizing so-called “Reason for Hope” festivals at important project locations. This year the festival took place in Überlingen at Lake Constance, where we started the foundation of a third breeding area this year.
There were plenty of reasons for this festival. This year, a total of 48 young Northern Bald Ibises were raised in the context of the reintroduction project: 17 chicks were born and raised in the wild in Burghausen and Kuchl, 31 birds were hand-raised and trained in Überlingen/Hödingen. Those 31 birds are now ready for the human-led migration, which was also confirmed by our project veterinarian Dr. Alexandra Scope during a veterinary checkup. Presumably with the beginning of the upcoming week, we will tackle the first stage of this year´s HLM.
Reason for Hope is also given by the broad support from the city of Überlingen, Hödingen and the association for the conservation of cultural landscapes in Hödingen. This year`s media attention for the project was also considerably high. In addition to loads of reports in print media, seven TV productions with 12 days of shootings were done during our stay. Much effort was and is required for the filming of a huge French documentary; we were also visited by the TV host Frank Elstner and zoo director Matthias Reinschmidt. But particularly the local people showed an unprecedented interest in our project. Since June 11th, a total of 2400 people visited our training camp!
More than 90 invited guests participated in our Reason for Hope festival, among others representatives of the city of Überlingen and Hödingen as well as the member of German Bundestag Lothar Riebsamen. The entertainment highlight of the evening was the performance of the regionally known cabaret duo Hepperle and Moser. An organic buffet with mainly local products
During the festival, three of our colleagues were honored for their exceptional work during the season 2017. Our two foster mothers Corinna Esterer and Anne-Gabriela Schmalstieg hand-raised and trained the large group of 31 Northern Bald Ibises; the birds are well prepared for the human-led migration, especially the first big task of crossing the Alps in the upcoming week. Ines Aster managed the project´s training camp and also organized the Reason for Hope festival in Überlingen.
The first migration flight will presumably take place on Monday, August 14th, at around 08:30 am. We will fly from Überlingen/Hödingen to Andelsbuch (Bregenzerwald). We will continuously inform you about the start-up and the proceedings of the human-led migration 2017 on our website (www.waldrapp.eu) and on our facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/NorthernBaldIbis). Visitors are welcome to watch our departure from outside the campsite.
Picture: The german TV host Frank Elstner (standing between the two foster mothers dressed in yellow) and the zoo director Matthias Reinschmidt (standing in the center) visited our camp. Our project veterinarian Alexandra Scope (standing far right) did the veterinary screening of our birds.
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