When it comes to what birds have and what humans don’t, your mind might first land on the ability to fly. However, birds are also pretty good at navigating from the air… assuming, that is, they know where they’re trying to go in the first place.
In recent decades, conservationists have been trying to reintroduce the northern bald ibis to central Europe. There’s just one problem—when the birds first died out on the continent, so did their handed-down knowledge of their traditional migration route. Somehow, the new generation had to be taught where to go.
Flightpaths
The northern bald ibis was once widely found all over Europe, but disappeared several centuries ago. It had the most success clinging on in Morocco, which has been a source of birds for reintroduction efforts. Credit: Len Worthington, CC BY-SA 2.0
The population of the northern bald ibis used to be spread farther and wider than it is today. Fossil records indicate the bird once lived in great numbers across northern Africa, the Middle East, and southern and central Europe. Sadly, it vanished from Europe sometime in the 17th century, though it persisted elsewhere, most notably in Morocco. A wild population hung on in Turkey, though faced a rapid decline from the 1970s onwards, with birds failing to return from their winter migrations. In 1992, a handful of remaining birds were kept caged for part of the year to prevent these annual losses. Meanwhile, in 2002, it was revealed that a handful of birds were clinging on with isolated nests found in Syria. Numbers remain limited in the low four-figure range, with the northern bald ibis definitively listed as endangered.
With the bird’s status in danger, multiple reintroduction efforts have been pursued around the world. In particular, European efforts had boosted a conserved population up to 300 individuals by the early 2000s. However, keeping the birds alive proved challenging. Being unfamiliar with the continent, the birds would tend to fly off in random directions when their instinct kicked in to migrate for winter. Without knowing where they were going, few birds would make it to a suitably warm climate for the colder months, and many failed to return home in the summer.
The birds are kept in aviaries at times to ensure they are fit for migration and that they don’t head off in a random direction of their own accord. Credit: Baekemm, CC BY-SA 4.0
In 2002, an effort to solve this began in earnest. It hoped to not only return the birds to the wild, but to let them freely roam and migrate as they once did with abandon. The hope was to breed birds in captivity, and then train them on their traditional migration route, such that they might then pass the knowledge on to their descendants.
Of course, you can’t simply sit a northern bald ibis down with a map and show it how to get from northern Austria down to Tuscany and back. Nor can you train it on a flight simulator or give it a GPS. Instead, the conservationists figured they’d teach the birds the old fashioned way. They’d fly the route with a microlite aircraft, with the birds trained to follow along behind. Once they got the idea, the microlite would guide them on the longer migration route, and the hope was that they’d learn to repeat the journey themselves for the future.
The benefit of using ultralight air craft was simple. It allowed the birds to see their keepers and follow a familiar human in flight. In contrast, typical general aviation aircraft or larger planes wouldn’t be so familiar to the birds, and they wouldn’t be so eager to follow.
In 2003, the first migration attempt took place. The initial attempt faced challenges, with inclement weather forcing the birds to be transported much of the way by road. However, the following year found great success. The birds were guided south during the autumn, and returned the following spring. The project continued, with repeat successes over the years. Reports from 2010 were particularly buoyant. Across August and September that autumn, the journey saw 14 birds following the microlites for an average distance of 174 km a day, winding up in Tuscany in time for the winter.
The project continues in earnest to this day. “We have to teach them the migration route and that’s what we do using microlight planes,” project director Johannes Fritz told AP. Leading the Waldrappteam, he’s been working for decades to train the birds on what used to come naturally. “Human foster parents raise the chicks so they are imprinted on human foster parents, and then we train them to follow the foster parents which sit on the back seat of the microlight—and it works.” The training is taking, with the team recording multiple birds independently deciding to fly the correct migration route over the years.
The hope is that the flock will grow larger and eventually become self-sustaining. Ideally, the older birds that know the route will teach younger generations, just as they learned themselves from the microlite pilots in their youth. It’s a grand tradition, passed down from pilot to bird to bird, perhaps not quite as nature intended!
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
All rights reserved to : USAGOLDMIES . www.usagoldmines.com
You can Enjoy surfing our website categories and read more content in many fields you may like .
Why USAGoldMines ?
USAGoldMines is a comprehensive website offering the latest in financial, crypto, and technical news. With specialized sections for each category, it provides readers with up-to-date market insights, investment trends, and technological advancements, making it a valuable resource for investors and enthusiasts in the fast-paced financial world.
By Nermeen Nabil Khear 
