Mini Report practice

Houbara

The International Fund for Houbara Conversation stand this year features live houbara, and a play performed by primary and middle school students at the Al Yaher Public School. “Educating future hunters and falconers is our main attention this year which is why we are working closely with the Abu Dhabi Education Council and would like to see more schools taking interest in the Houbara,” said Delphine Delire, head of the IFHC\'S communications and public relations department.

One more reason, is that many trap these birds and take them from their habitats in order to train their falcons how to hunt. “Many falconers have drifted away from traditional methods of hunting, by over-trapping houbara birds, which are not the falcon’s natural prey in the first place.

Some killers are poaching the houbara by killing it using shotguns, giving the bird a zero survival chance in that case, as different to the slight chance of escape the houbara gets when being hunted by a falcon. A reason for this is the difference in attitude that modern hunters have as opposed to their forefathers who grew up in harsh conditions and were accustomed to giving back to nature as much as they took from it. By way of its own independent stand for the first time this year at the Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (ADIHEX), the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) announced it has exceeded yearly expectations of Asian Houbara release into the wild. This year has been remarkable in terms of success.

Throughout the Exhibition’s four days, the IFHC will be distributing surveys aimed at falconers to determine how many Houbara birds will be needed to be bred, and how severe over-trapping is. Another issue we face is that we cannot determine the size of the black market, which is why these surveys are important.

This means houbara will not be taken from the wild to train falcons. Actually, the hunting exhibition is the best place be in contact as much as we can with falconers, and this gives us a very good indication of the hunting pressure and the problems these birds are facing," said Mr Al Baidani.

Analysis will indicate how many wild birds are trapped and which areas require the reintroduction programme. This will give evidence of past houbara behavior.