What is it about?
Asian Houbara are declining due to unregulated hunting and trade, while captive-breeding is used at increasingly large scales in an attempt to reinforce and support wild populations. Here, we compare the migration performance of released captive-bred birds to that of adult and juvenile (first-winter) wild counterparts. Captive-bred birds initiated autumn migration an average of 20.6 (4.6 se) days later and wintered 470.8 km (76.4 se) closer to the breeding grounds, mainly in Turkmenistan, northern Iran and Afghanistan, than wild birds, which migrated 1217.8 km (76.4 se), predominantly wintering in southern Iran and Pakistan (juveniles and adults were similar). The migratory performance of captive-bred birds was otherwise similar to that of wild juveniles. Although the long-term fitness consequences for captivebred birds establishing wintering sites at the northern edge of those occupied by wild birds remain to be quantified, the pattern of wild migrations established by long-term selection was not fully replicated.
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Why is it important?
Conservation of the Asian Houbara requires regulation of hunting and control of poaching in an integrated strategy, and cannot be achieved solely through captive-breeding.
Perspectives
This work was a collaboration by a team of field ornithologists, led by the University of East Anglia, in partnership with the Emirates Bird Breeding Centre for Conservation and BirdLife International. You can see more about the Sustainable Houbara Management programme at: https://www.sustainablehoubaramanagement.org or follow us on Facebook or Twitter: @SustainHoubara
Professor Paul M Dolman
University of East Anglia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Comparative migration strategies of wild and captive-bred Asian Houbara Chlamydotis macqueenii, Ibis, February 2017, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12462.
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Resources
Sustainable Houbara Management website
Website of the Sustainable Houbara Management Programme, a collaboration between the Emirates Bird Breeding Centre for Conservation, BirdLife International and University of East Anglia
Captive breeding cannot sustain migratory Asian houbara Chlamydotis macqueenii without hunting controls
Related paper that develops a demographic model, paramterised through satellite telemetry and extensive fieldwork in the Kyzlkum, Uzbekistan, to show that conservation of the Asian Houbara requires regulation of hunting and control of poaching.
Survival rates of captive-bred Asian Houbara Chlamydotis macqueenii in a hunted migratory population
Related paper that uses satellite telemetry to compare survival rates of released captive-bred Asian Houbara to those of wild counterparts.
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