Северный лысуха: редкая перелетная птица в опасности

An endangered migratory bird found in barren and rocky habitats

The northern bald ibis, hermit ibis, or waldrapp (Geronticus eremita) is a migratory Old World bird found in open areas such as grasslands, rocky habitats and semi deserts, often close to running water. This glossy black ibis, which, unlike many members of the ibis family, is non wading, has an unfeathered red face and head, and a long, curved red bill. It breeds colonially on coastal or mountain cliff ledges, where it typically lays two to three eggs in a stick nest, and feeds on lizards, insects, and other small animals. The northern bald ibis was once widespread across the Middle East, northern Africa, southern and central Europe, with a fossil record dating back at least 1.8 million years. It disappeared from Europe over 300 years ago, although reintroduction programmes in the region are underway. In 2019 there were about 700 wild birds remaining in southern Morocco, and fewer than 10 in Syria, where it was rediscovered in 2002 but where their number declined in the following years, maybe to zero. To combat these low numbers, reintroduction programs have been instituted internationally in recent times, with a semi wild breeding colony in Turkey which counted almost 250 birds in 2018 as well as sites in Austria, Italy, Spain, and northern Morocco. These programmes and the natural growth in Morocco from about 200 birds in the 1990s helped to downlist the northern bald ibis from Critically Endangered to Endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2018. There are about 2000 northern bald ibises living in captivity. The long term decline in Europe has been linked to hunting and eating them, especially the fledglings. Because of the slow reproduction of the ibises this may lead to local extinction.

The northern bald ibis breeds in loosely spaced colonies, nesting on cliff ledges or amongst boulders on steep slopes, usually on the coast or near a river. In the past, the birds also nested in buildings. and are initially blue white with brown spots, becoming brown during incubation. Both parents incubate and feed the chicks. As the flock moves across the ground, the ibis uses its long bill to feel for food items in the loose, sandy soil. Since this bird hunts mainly by probing, a soft surface seems to be vital, and it is important that any vegetation is sparse, and not more than high. The northern bald ibis is one of the key species to which the draft Agreement on the Conservation of African Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies, and it has a detailed, internationally agreed conservation action plan under the agreement. The northern bald ibis has declined for several centuries, at least partly as a consequence of unidentified natural causes.

Monitoring of Moroccan wild population is guaranteed by BirdLife International partners, especially by RSPB, SEO/BirdLife and, recently GREPOM in cooperation with Souss Massa National Park administration and the support of institutions like Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation which is the Species Champion for Northern Bald Ibis. For the first time in the species' recorded history, there is now evidence of population growth in the wild, and the population in Morocco increased to 100 breeding pairs in the decade prior to 2008 Simple site and species protection has facilitated this growth. Quantitative assessments of the importance of sites for breeding, roosting, and foraging have guided actions to prevent disturbance and the loss of key areas to mass tourism development. Wardening by members of the local community has reduced human intrusion and increased the perceived value of the birds. The provision of drinking water and the removal and deterrence of predators and competitors enhances breeding prospects, and monitoring has confirmed that steppe and two year fallows are key feeding habitats. In early 2019 the total population in the two colonies of Souss Massa National Park and Tamri reached 708 birds after 147 breeding pairs that laid eggs have produced 170 chicks in the last breeding season. Maintaining such non intensive land uses in the future may present major management challenges, and the recovery in the Souss Massa region remains precarious because the population is concentrated in just a few places. However, it could provide opportunities for natural extension of the range to formerly occupied sites further north in Morocco. Beside protection and training operations, data on threats and on feeding and breeding ecology were collected in the field. An Ibis Protected Area was recommended and established, and an awareness and education program was also launched and successfully implemented. Two breeding failures were recorded in 2005 and 2008 following a change of project management and of ibis protection strategy, that occurred between 2004 and 2005. Three birds were tagged with satellite tags and the migratory route and wintering site of the colony were discovered in 2006. A supplementation trial could be eventually conducted in 2010 by introducing captive born chicks into the wild colony in Palmyra. For this aim, a first captive breeding center was established in Palmyra. Three chicks introduced at the wild colony in Palmyra followed a migrating wild adult for more than 1000 km from Palmyra well into southwest Saudi Arabia. The intent is to allow the birds to migrate once the population reaches a stable 100 pairs, excluding young. The birds are released in late January or early February to breed outside the cages on ledges and, mainly, in the nest boxes in the breeding station compound. The ibises are free flying and forage around the Birecik area in forest nurseries, agricultural fields, and along the Euphrates, but supplementary food is also provided. Decisions taken at the meeting included: In future captive breeding and releasing programmes, only birds of known origin should be used. All northern bald ibises in zoos, other than those in Turkey, are of the western population, and were imported from Morocco. Three bloodlines exist; the earliest relates to importations to Zoo Basel, Switzerland in the 1950s and 1960s, the next is the descendants of birds taken in the 1970s to stock Rabat Zoo, and the last captured wild birds were those taken to the Naturzoo, Rheine, in 1976 and 1978. Other major disease problems reported in zoo collections have been avian tuberculosis, gastric foreign bodies, bone disease, and heart problems. An outbreak of West Nile virus in Bronx Park, New York, involved northern bald ibises amongst many other species of birds and mammals.

In 1504, a decree by Archbishop Leonhard of Salzburg made the northern bald ibis one of the world's earliest officially protected species. They nested in the cliffs and on castles and ruins in the Graz/Steiermark and Salzburg regions of Austria and vanished around 1630–1645. The Scharnstein Project is an attempt to establish a migratory waldrapp colony by using ultralight planes to teach a migration route. The scheme builds on the Grünau research by developing a method to control and guide the autumn migration of a founder population, which then can pass this migration tradition to subsequent generations. In May 2002, 11 birds from the Vienna Zoo and the Grünau colony were trained to follow two microlight planes, and in 2003, a first attempt was made to lead a group of birds from Scharnstein to southern Tuscany. Due to adverse weather and technical problems, the birds had to be transported by road over a considerable part of the distance. In August 2013 the European Union agreed to provide support to reintroduction projects until 2019 under its LIFE+ Biodiversity programme. The Reason for Hope project under the leadership of the biologist Dr. Johannes Fritz has operated one breeding and observation site in Austria, in Kuchl, near Salzburg, and two similar sites in Burghausen, Bavaria, and in Überlingen on Lake Constance in Baden Württemberg. The positions and flight patterns of migratory birds are monitored with light weight solar transmitters. After learning to follow their human foster mothers seated in ultralight aircraft, around 30 young birds are led over the Alps to spend the winter months in Tuscany. Numerous studies on migratory bird behaviour have been published and presentations given at symposiums. In November 2019 it was announced that the project team succeeded in uniting juvenile birds with experienced adult birds so that they could fly to their wintering site together. Proyecto Eremita is a Spanish reintroduction involving the release of nearly 30 birds in the Ministry of Defence training ground in La Janda district, Barbate, Cádiz Province. It had its first success in 2008, when a pair laid two eggs. This is probably the first attempt to breed in the wild in Spain for 500 years as the last definite reference to the northern bald ibis breeding in Spain is from a 15th century falconry book. This effort has been undertaken by the Andalusian government's Environmental Ministry, the Spanish Ministry of Defence, and the Zoobotánico de Jeréz (Jerez Zoo and Botanical Gardens), with the assistance of the Doñana Biological Station, CSIC and volunteers from the Cádiz Natural History Society. Previously, two birds left the area in 2005 and 14 in 2006, but nothing is known of their whereabouts other than that a ringed bird from Spain was seen in the Middle Atlas, Morocco in 2005. Internet pictures of this species taken near Armação de Pêra, Algarve, Portugal in 2009 and later, may be related to those releases in Spain. In 2014 the total population of this colony was 78 wild birds split into two colonies, originally along the cliffs of the Atlantic coast and in 2012 with a second colony of 5–6 breeding pairs that started at the cliffs 10 km inland next to a country road at La Barca de Vejer (Vejer de la Frontera). In 2022 the wild population of northern bald ibis living near Cádiz has increased to about 180 birds that roam an area of about 50 km. In June 2023, a pair was reported nesting on a commercial building in Rümlang, near Zurich Airport in Switzerland, with two young, the first recorded breeding pair in Switzerland in over 400 years. The adults were reported to have been tracked from the reintroduction project at Überlingen in Germany.

There is a planned reintroduction of the ibis at Ain Tijja Mezguitem in the north east of Morocco. Since the wild populations further south remain vulnerable, and the porous sandstone of their breeding ledges is exposed to erosion, the intention is to establish a non migratory population (stocked from German, Swiss, and Austrian zoos) in an area where this species was known to have bred up to about 1980. The station in the Rif mountains was built in 2000, and stocked with the first group of zoo bred birds. A second importation of zoo bred birds and the construction of an information centre took place in 2004. Six pairs bred in 2006 subsequent to a change in the birds' diet, and six offspring from five nests were successfully reared. In 2007 there were 19 birds (13 adults and six juveniles) in the aviary. The rock walls of the mountains have many potential breeding ledges, and an artificial lake provides water to the birds and to the local human population. Steppe pasture which is not exposed to herbicides or pesticides gives good foraging. Once the population reaches around 40 birds, a release will be initiated, subject to international agreement. The reintroduction site is from Agadir on the other side of the Atlas Mountains, so accidental contamination of the wild colonies is unlikely.

According to local legend in the Birecik area, the northern bald ibis was one of the first birds that Noah released from the Ark as a symbol of fertility, It has also been used to signify the soul or spirit, one of five elements constituting personality. Herodotus wrote of the man eating Stymphalian birds, which had wings of brass and sharp metallic feathers they could fire at their victims. Ridding Lake Stymphalia in Arcadia of these creatures was one of the twelve labours of Heracles. These mythical birds are sometimes considered to be based on the northern bald ibis, Some depictions, such as the 6th century BC Athenian black figure amphora in the British Museum, clearly show the black head and white body of the sacred ibis. After the bald ibis became extinct in Central Europe, some later writers thought that Gesner's description was one of several in his book depicting mythical creatures. A small illustration of the northern bald ibis is found in the illuminated St Galler Handschrift of 1562, a drawing by Joris Hoefnagel in Missale Romanum (1582 1590) and in paintings in the collection of Rudolf II at Vienna. The portal of Lukovec Castle in Lukovica pri Brezovici (central Slovenia) also features this species. In Birecik, Turkey an ancient celebration 'Kelaynak yortusu' held in mid February to mark the return of the birds from Africa was revived in the 1950s. which has a small captive population.