DUBAI: Poachers are taking aim at one of Arab culture's most fabled birds, the falcon. According to conservation groups in the region, poaching of falcons in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Gulf is becoming an all-too-often occurrence. The saker falcon is now considered endangered and the number of houbara, the targets for the birds, is also declining as a direct result of poaching. It is difficult to put numbers to the number of poachers across the region, notably in Iraq and Iran, but fears are on the rise as researchers see the quick decline of the bird populations. “Nobody really knows, and it is extremely difficult to determine how big the problem is,” said Nigel Collar, an expert from BirdLife International, a global alliance of conservationists, in comments published by The National newspaper. “The trade is widespread and we think it is a widespread problem.” Loss of habitat and hunting have thinned the houbara bustard's population by a quarter in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa in the past two decades. Despite beliefs from conservationists, Collar said there was only anecdotal evidence to suggest illegal trading. “Falcons are for profit – they sell them at a considerable profit. But the hunting of houbaras is a sport,” he said. The hunting season for houbara in the Arabian Peninsula usually begins in October, when the birds migrate for the winter from Central Asia into Iran and Iraq. Recent cases have shown that hunters illegally enter Iran and Iraq from other countries, including the Gulf. On December 1, four Emiratis were arrested in Iran for illegally hunting the houbara without a permit in the country's western Ilam province. Officials from Iran's Environment Protection Organization said they caught the men with 10 of the birds along with equipment such as falcon blinders, shotguns and walkie-talkies. Biodiversity expert Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz in Dubai told Bikya Masr the decline in species usually represents a major problem for the ecosystem of any given area. He called on government authorities to do more to end the illegal poaching and killing of the birds. “We must take seriously the fact that poaching is persisting, because if we don't and we end up losing these birds, it will have more effects than officials and average people understand,” he said. BM
