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Wildlife Featured in this article
- Northern bald ibis
Once extirpated ibis is now migrating again—with help
Flight instructors are guiding the migration of northern bald ibises in Europe
Human flight instructors are showing a once extirpated bird how to migrate once again in parts of the Old World. Northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) used to migrate between Europe, Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. They went extinct in the 17th century due to hunting for their meat and feathers. Captive breeding programs and releases have led to increases in the birds’ numbers, but they still didn’t know how to migrate, and reintroduced birds would often disappear. But a team of conservationists has been guiding their migrations using a microlight aircraft between northern Italy and Spain for years now, helping to boost the species numbers in the wild. They were inspired by similar efforts to teach whooping cranes (Grus americana) and Canada geese (Branta canadensis) to migrate in the 1980s and 1990s in North America.
Header Image: Northern bald ibises were hunted nearly to extinction in past centuries. Credit: Alan Wilson
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