As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Monday 14 July 2014

Environmentalists get claws into plans for Qatari-funded falcon-breeding centre in China

Environmental activists in China have got their claws into plans for a costly breeding centre for falcons in Xinjiang, sponsored by a Qatari organisation, mainland media reported today.

The US$15 million centre, which is still being built in Aletai, in the far-west of Xinjiang, is using funds provided by a Qatari ecological and bird conservation association.

News of the plans in Xinjiang has sparked heated debate on the mainland. Environmentalists and wildlife conservationists fear the breeding centre for saker falcons – seen as a status symbol for wealthy Arabs – will be run simply to meet the demand of hunters in the Middle East.

“We don’t want to build a hunting field for rich Qataris,” one Sina Weibo microblogger wrote.

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