Critically endangered northern bald ibis

The Middle East’s rarest bird teeters on the brink of extinction.
The northern bald ibis had not been spotted in the wild in the Middle East for about 70 years until in 2002 researchers discovered seven birds nesting near the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. Since then the Syrian Government’s Desert Commission and supporting conservationists have toiled to preserve this tiny population, but numbers are sadly down to three birds.

Conservationists fear Syria’s political unrest will have a detrimental effect on these sensitive birds, already traumatised by illegal hunting and other threats.

International agencies helping to save this colony from oblivion include the Turkish government, which donated six juvenile semi-captive birds to Syria, hoping their introduction will swell the precariously small wild population.

UK bird charity the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) devised a programme involving attaching satellite tracking devices to the backs of four of these birds. The data received revealed the migration route of the adults – namely Odeinat and Salama - crossing eight countries and spending the winter in the highlands of Ethiopia. However, where the other two tracked youngsters donated by Turkey go and whether they can survive still remains a mystery, according to Chris Bowden, RSPB international species recovery officer monitoring the birds.

Conservationists from RSPB place satellite tracking device on an ibis

Once widespread across North Africa and the Middle East, the only other nesting population of about 100 breeding pairs of Geronticus eremita lies in Morocco.

What a sorry state of affairs for a bird so respected by ancient Egyptians to be depicted in a hieroglyph!

Check out  http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/tracking/northernbaldibis/

A variation of my original story is at

https://gulfnews.com/life-style/general/on-track-to-save-the-ibis-1.965985