Hailstorm kills and injures thousands of falcons

14/03/2019

A violent hailstorm in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal has killed and injured almost 2,000 falcons.

The vast majority of the birds involved were Amur Falcons, although smaller numbers of Red-footed Falcons and Lesser Kestrels, which roost among the flocks of Amurs, were also injured. The birds roost communally in large numbers, meaning freak weather incidents such as that on Saturday 9 March can potentially be devastating to wintering populations.

The event unfolded in the town of Mooi River, situated inland some 140 km north-west of Durban, late evening on Saturday, where large numbers of falcons roost during the winter months. Fortunately, volunteers and members of the public were on hand to transfer hundreds of the injured birds to the FreeMe Wildlife Rehabilitation KZN branch in nearby Howick throughout the early hours of Sunday morning, where urgent treatment began.

In total, 1,090 falcons were treated during 18 hours of constant effort by the team throughout Sunday, with this thought to be the largest single-species rescue ever made in South Africa. Following assessment and treatment, the first 400 falcons were ringed and released back into the wild on Monday, with this figure climbing 970 by the end of Wednesday.

However, it was not all good news. Unfortunately, around 70 of the falcons admitted to the clinic died, while no fewer than 713 corpses were recovered from beneath the roosting tree in Mooi River on Sunday. The deceased birds have been donated to the Durban Natural History Museum, University of KwaZulu Natal and South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) for DNA, isotope analysis, gene pool analysis, further research and taxidermy.

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Tagged Amur falcons return to India's Nagaland

10 November 2014 Last updated at 09:24


By Amitabha BhattasaliBBC News, Calcutta
Millions of Amur falcons, flying from Mongolia to South Africa, stop in India's Nagaland every year

Two of the three Amur falcons tagged with satellite tracking chips last year have returned to the north-eastern Indian state of Nagaland.

The birds, which come to roost every year during their flight from Mongolia to Africa, are back at Doyang lake.

The return of the chipped birds has given scientists valuable details about their journey to Africa and then back to their homeland in Mongolia.

The falcons travel almost 22,000km (13,670 miles) every year.

Amur falcons are the longest travelling raptors in the world and come to Doyang every year in their millions.

Forest officials say the birds are yet to be located, but satellite data shows their presence in the area.

The two falcons - named Naga and Pangti - have returned to Nagaland almost after a year and even though their location is not known yet, "a small ceremony was organised to mark their return", Nagaland's Principal Chief Conservator of Forests M Lokeswara Rao told the BBC.

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Civil Societies help to protect Amur falcons in Nagaland

Dimapur, October 16 (MExN): Wild Flowers, a development and conservation group of CCER has urged civil societies of Nagaland providing protection to Amur Falcons arriving Doyang in Nagaland a bordering areas of Assam to be keep on their initiative of protection and conservation.

Mubina Akhtar, one of the Director of the group said since the birds have arrived and every concerned organisations and appropriate authorities must work hard for next one month. Akhtar said that Amur Falcons had arrived and were sighted from October 1. Initially, around 50-60 birds were sighted but the numbers have gone up to a couple of thousands now. More are expected to arrive. Following reports about the falcons being hunted in large numbers last year, a Rapid Action Project (RAP) was undertaken by the Natural Nagas and WTI with the help of local civil societies and to assist the state Forest Department in their endeavour to protect them. Wild Flowers has appreciated Naga civil societies for its initiative to save the bird appeals Naga people to keep on the protection measures for free passage of the Amur falcon birds on their route to Africa.

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Tripartite MoU singed to save Amur Falcons

Village council members of Pangti, Asshaa and Sungro villages, under Wokha have signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and Wokha-based NGO Natural Nagas to assist Nagaland forest department to stop wide-scale hunt of Amur Falcons in Doyang Reservoir.

In a press release, WTI’s Awareness for Conservation assistant manager Subhamoy Bhattacharjee stated that with mass annual hunt potentially threatening the species, a resolution was cleared by the villages to penalize offenders up to five thousand rupees this year onwards.

The tri-partite MoU seeks to start awareness generation through a targeted campaign, including the use of signage, collaterals, wildlife films etc.

MoU pledged to engage locals in protecting Amur Falcons: formulating watch squads to help protect Amur falcon roosting or foraging sites and watch tower construction to promote bird watching.

It was also agreed to formulate laws and guidelines in accordance with the VCMs to prohibit hunting and poaching of Amur falcons and help mitigate human-wildlife conflicts.

Tens of thousands of Amur Falcons were reportedly hunted annually for their meat in the district, as they crossed the region en route to Africa from Siberia.

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National and international action being launched to protect Amur falcons

Amur falcon massacre - You can help

November 2012. The 100,000+ Amur falcons that are killed every year in India, revealed by Conservation India, (As reported in Wildlife Extra) has caused a stir throughout the conservation community.

Such is the reach of social media that this emotive story went viral within hours and during the next few days, news quickly spread around the world shocking all who read about the Amurs' plight. Conservation India's highly effective campaign has already helped galvanise local, national and international action.

Birdlife has set up a fund to help stop this slaughter, and they invite you to help stop this killing forever by donating to an emergency fund that will help Bombay Natural History Society (BirdLife in India) coordinate the action that is required to ensure this massacre will never happen again. If you are moved by this issue please don't turn aside - donating now will make a huge difference to the future of these birds and every little helps.

Local actions
Vital actions that will be funded this way include establishing field teams to monitor the Amur Falcons at their roost sites, direct intervention to prevent further illegal hunting of all species and the establishment of a sustained education and engagement programme within communities in Nagaland and other north-eastern states of India, where illegal and indiscriminate hunting is sadly still prevalent.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/falcon-india.html