Reason for Hope
Newsletter 11/06/2019
Heading towards a self-sustaining wild population
Last week our two field managers Daniela Trobe and Corinna Esterer started ringing the young birds hatched in the breeding areas Burghausen and Kuchl. They had quite an extensive job to do; after the last successful season of 2018 with 26 fledglings, the breeding success of 2019 is even higher, with 40 chicks in 13 nests (!) that hatched so far, and even more young birds are expected to hatch in the next weeks.
While all these chicks are growing up in the wild, another 32 young birds are hand-raised by the two foster mothers Anne-Gabriela Schmalstieg and Helena Wehner in our new training camp in Heiligenberg, Baden-Württemberg. Another 4 young birds are hand-reared separately in Heiligenberg in a separate aviary by their two foster parents Katharina Neugebauer and Frederik Amann. For the time being, these birds will be part of an exciting research project on the aerodynamics of bird flight. Later they will be integrated into the wild colony. They belong to an in the wild population underrepresented genetic line from the zoo Zurich.
Thus, 76 young birds are currently growing up in the context of LIFE project; they give hope that the release population will significantly grow. The aim of the current LIFE project, which expires at the end of 2019, is to reintroduce a wild migratory NBI population of at least 120 individuals. In all probability, we will clearly exceed this goal and thus successfully finish the project.
Population modeling shows that the growth of the European NBI population will need to be promoted by several releases over several years, until it reaches a size of around 350 animals. Only such a population is large enough to compensate for losses and to overcome changing environmental conditions, for example as a result of climate change.
In January 2019, we therefore applied for a second LIFE project, beginning in 2020 and with a duration of 8 years. At the beginning of June we have been told that this first application was unfortunately unsuccessful. Though disappointing, this is not uncommon for a LIFE application, especially since the application can be re-submitted in an optimized form. We will do that and - for good reason - we are optimistic about this second attempt. This successful project should not be stopped halfway. The rapid collapse of the release population and thus a serious drawback for the conservation of this migratory species would be the result, which is not in anyone’s interest.
Of course, the rejected proposal means that we now have to find interim financing for the year 2020. We hope for support from our partners, sponsors and donors. In addition, to keep costs as low as possible, we will not perform a human-led migration next year. This will temporarily affect the growth of the breeding colony of Überlingen. However, we expect to be able to compensate for this again from 2021 onwards.
Speaking of Überlingen: Several subadult birds of the generation 2017 and even 2018 from Überlingen have currently left the wintering area. As expected, these birds are following a migration route that is much farther to the west than their conspecifics from the breeding areas Burghausen and Kuchl, which are located approximately 300 km further east. There is a good chance that already in 2019 the first NBIs will return to Überlingen, more than 400 years after the last specimen disappeared!
Picture (D. Trobe): Breeding Northern Bald Ibis in Kuchl (Salzburg).
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