Rare eagle sneaks into Iran and drains Siberian ornithologists’ funds by spamming costly text messages

25 Oct, 2019 08:13 / Updated 12 days ago

A Russian bird conservation group has discovered a sudden hole in their budget after one of the eagles they were tracking started bombarding them with hundreds of expensive text messages from Iran.

Roaming is one big headache when you travel a lot, and raptors can get burned by it just as easily as the bipeds that created mobile phones. Just ask the Russian Raptor Research and Conservation Network (RRRCN), an environmental group whose eagle tracking budget was surprisingly drained by one particularly sneaky bird of prey.

The network studies the migration routes of various birds, including the endangered steppe eagle. They do so by putting solar-powered GPS trackers on their subjects. The device records the coordinates of the birds and dumps the data via text messages through a regular mobile network when it’s available. The conservationists then check the routes against potential threats like high-voltage power lines or poison baits deployed for pest control and try to find ways to avoid them.

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Scale of illegal bird killing in the Middle East revealed for the first time

A new study, has for the first time, estimated the scale and extent of the illegal killing and taking of wild birds in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and Iran. Using a diverse range of data sources and incorporating expert knowledge, we estimate that at least 1.7–4.6 million birds of at least 413 species may be killed or taken illegally each year in this region, many of them on migration. Worryingly, this is likely to be an underestimate as data were unavailable for parts of the region. The highest illegal killing/ taking figures were mean estimates of 1.7 million birds per year in part of Saudi Arabia and 800,000 birds in part of Iran, despite in both cases data only being available only for part of the country. Estimates of illegal killing and taking in Iraq and Yemen were also relatively high with 329,000 and 273,000 birds on average estimated to be illegally killed or taken each year.

Illegal killing and taking poses a global threat to biodiversity and has attracted international attention. For example, in 2014 the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), to which most of the countries from this review are Parties, adopted a Resolution to prevent illegal killing, taking and trade of migratory birds in 2014 (UNEP/CMS 2014).

Worryingly, in this latest study, several species of global conservation concern were illegally killed or taken, including Marbled Teal, Common Pochard and European Turtle-dove (all classified by BirdLife International as Vulnerable on the global IUCN Red List). Of greater concern, Sociable Lapwing (Critically Endangered) was also reported to be known or likely to be killed illegally each year in relatively high numbers relative to its small population size. Illegal shooting and illegal trapping were the two most prevalent methods and birds were reported to be illegally killed or taken primarily for sport, but also for food, mainly as a delicacy.

In several countries illegal killing and taking was widespread throughout the country, but for other countries particular worst locations were identified. These included the Caspian Sea coast in Iran and the mountainous Kurdistan region of Iraq with more than 100,000 birds a year estimated to be illegally killed/ taken in each location and waterbirds particularly affected. Both Iran and Iraq provide important staging and wintering areas for migratory birds, especially waterbirds, and high levels of take may be a factor driving population declines of waterbirds in the Central Asian flyway.

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One million birds killed illegally every year at a wildlife site in Iran

Conservationists sound alarm over unprecedented slaughter of rare and endangered species by hunters at three lagoons

Robin McKie

Sun 25 Feb 2018 00.04 GMT

A million wild birds a year are now being killed illegally at a single wildlife site in Iran. That is the stark warning from conservationists who say highly endangered migratory species face being wiped out in the near future there unless urgent action is taken.

In a letter last week to the journal Science, the conservationists pinpoint the Fereydunkenar wetlands in Iran as the site of this widespread wildlife slaughter.

Three major lagoons – Fereydunkenar, Sorkhrud and Azbaran – provide resting places for species that winter there, including the Siberian crane which is designated as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservationof Nature.

Other endangered or threatened species in the wetlands include white-headed ducks (Oxyura leucocephala), red-breasted geese (Branta ruficollis), lesser white-fronted geese (Anser erythropus), northern lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) and wintering raptors such as falcons.

However, these birds have increasingly become targets for local hunters and occasionally for others who visit the region. “An estimated 3,000 of these birds are currently being killed daily by local hunters to sell at local markets,” say Jamshid Parchizadeh, an Iranian conservationist, and zoologist Samual Williams, of Venda University, South Africa, in their letter to Science. “This could have catastrophic effects on the species that depend on this ecosystem.”

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Poachers of rare birds arrested in Damghan

Marjan Golpira

TEHRAN – The local chief the Environment Protection Organization in Damghan said on Tuesday that two poachers of rare birds have been arrested and now they are in police custody. 

Moslem Araghi told IRNA the illegal hunters had 500 animals traps extended in a wide sweep of 6 kilometers in southern Damghan, a city 342 kilometers east of Tehran.

Apparently the violators had a long history of illegal hunting as it was their fourth time in the past couple of years to get arrested not to mention their second time in the past three weeks, Araghi recounted. 

The area, he added, is now cleared off the traps with tractors. 

Hobara, an endangered and threatened bird, is being smuggled by poachers from southern Iran to the neighboring countries. 

http://tehrantimes.com/society/116720-poachers-of-rare-birds-arrested-in-damghan-