Tradition and technology in focus at exhibition

Hunting and Equestrian show begins in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: Falconers checked out the latest GPS innovations for the hunting season while horsemen inspected the latest stable equipment as the Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (Adihex), started in the capital yesterday.

And for the first time, children queued up to adopt cats and dogs looking for homes at the Pets for Adoption stall set up by the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital, which is looking to rehabilitate stray animals at this year’s event.

“Within four hours, we had already found homes for nine animals that were until now living in our shelter. Given the response, we are hoping to find homes for many more lovable cats and dogs by the end of Adihex on Saturday,” Dr. Margit Muller, director of the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital, told Gulf News.

Pet adoption

The pet adoption initiative was a welcome addition to the ninth edition of the popular exhibition, which saw its usual array of hunting and equestrian equipment on sale, and seamlessly fused heritage and hunting with technology and conservation.

The four-day exhibition, which spans 31,000 square metres this year, was inaugurated yesterday. It is held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of the Emirates Falconer’s Club. “This event is important in Abu Dhabi’s social landscape, especially as it allows Emiratis and other people to transmit their knowledge about wild species and the traditional arts to future generations,” Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, secretary general of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD), told Gulf News.

“In this way, the event conserves important Emirati traditions, and spurs on various conservation efforts,” she added.

This year’s Adihex hosts 596 exhibitors from 28 countries, and is bigger than before, following Unesco’s registration of falconry within its world heritage list.

Saud Al Mishal, a 32-year-old falconer from Saudi Arabia, said the exhibition had helped him find a range of new hunting equipment.

New GPS equipment in falcon tracking has also found its way into the exhibition.

“These GPS trackers show the exact location of the falcons, which have a transmitter attached to their tails. This way, the hunter can pinpoint the exact coordinates of the bird and its possible prey up to nearly 150km,” Juliette Pont, owner of Horizon Development in Radio Frequency, said.

The exhibition also saw the Middle Eastern launch of the RX Helix hunting rifle, which was inspired by Shaikh Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince’s Court, and developed by German gun manufacturer Merkel.

[source: golfnews]

Published on 4 Nov 2010

The latest death toll of birds of prey is a distressing one.

In the first six months of this year, four golden eagles, a sea eagle, five red kites, three buzzards, two peregrine falcons and one sparrowhawk were poisoned in Scotland. This wanton destruction of our most majestic birds is bad enough. It is doubly disturbing, however, that some estate owners or their staff are still prepared knowingly to break the law to protect commercial interests, despite increased awareness of public opposition to the practice and of the benefits of not disrupting the ecological balance.

Making employers responsible for illegal poisonings carried out by their employees, with a penalty of a fine of up to £5000 or six months in prison might seem to be taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Nevertheless the continuing toll of raptors shows illegal poisoning persists in defiance of the available sanctions. Vicarious liability, as proposed by Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham, is an important step forward because it clarifies that the buck stops with the employer. Too many prosecutions for crimes against wildlife have left an uncomfortable feeling that a gamekeeper or estate worker was in the dock for carrying out his employer’s wishes and protecting his livelihood. If estate owners have a specific duty to ensure their employees comply with the law, even workers who live in tied houses should be able to refuse to break it.

Enlightened landowners should welcome this step because it can only enhance their reputation for good practice. While game sports, including stalking, shooting and fishing, bring in £136m a year to the Scottish economy, they must have a positive relationship with wildlife tourism, which is worth £127m and brings in a million visitors a year. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Whether it is the result of a greater awareness of the environment, or sparked by television programmes, there is no doubt of the increased interest in nature. The red kite trail in Dumfries and Galloway has brought more than £20m into that area since 2003 and the careful protection of osprey nests has not only been a phenomenal success in wildlife terms but has brought visitors to Scotland for the past 40 years. Yet last year saw the highest number of confirmed raptor poisoning incidents in a single year for more than two decades. Ms Cunningham is right to get tough with those who are so out of step with 21st-century thinking.
Source: herarldscotland

Here is the article:

By Sasha Goldstein and Heidi Hanse

POLSON – Alligators, eagles and hawks. Oh my.

At the South Shore Veterinary Pet Fair last Saturday, animals, native to Polson and from elsewhere, hung out for the public to ask questions about and touch.

“It was really fun, a good time,” Carlos Rodriquez, an employee at South Shore, said.

He said the weather wasn’t ideal and many vendors canceled due to the rain. This year there wasn’t a dog training course, among other things.

“There’s that momentary ‘oh no, I’ll never do this again’ reaction [after the vendors canceled],” he said. “The show must go on. However, the presenters rose to the occasion.”

People came from as far away as Kalispell and from as close as the Polson Senior Center to satisfy their curious nature.

“For a lot of the visitors, it was good for them to see those different animals,” Rodriquez said. “Here in Polson, it’s a novelty.”

The whole point of the Pet Fair was to expose people to new things that they wouldn’t normally come into contact with for the greater cause of education.

“I like to see people exposed to animals one-on-one,” he said. “It helps when a kid sees the look on the animals’ faces. He might not pull the trigger on a .22 when his friends are telling him to shoot an eagle or hawk.”

Rodriquez had his own red-tailed hawk and golden eagle there for people to be exposed to. Rodriguez examined a pellet the eagle spit up, showing attendees what the bird had eaten the previous days as part of his presentation. The magnificent, large bird had hit a power line, Rodriguez said, and will never fly again.

“The choices were three: to euthanize her, tame her or give it to a zoo,” he said.

His two-year-old golden eagle, which he just learned can live to 50 or 60 years old, is trained to be an educational bird and was calm when approached by some of the fair-goers.

“If she is going to be an educational bird, she is going to have to get used to all of it,” he said. “It’s an everyday thing for me to hold an eagle, but that isn’t the case for others.”

His red-tailed hawk, on the other hand, has been healing up at his home in Polson, so this fair was a coming-out party of sorts.

“It was her first time to be presented to a group of people,” he said.

When Rodriquez is going to present his birds, he takes into account how the birds are acting the day of a presentation.

“There’s days when one of my birds just isn’t in the mood,” he said. “Then it’s not fun for the bird, the people or myself.”

Visitors were also able to check out a salt-water aquarium with many types of fish and coral.

In the future, Rodriquez would like to see the fair expand to include more games and activities for children.

“Kids have only a certain length of an attention span,” he said. “I would like it to be more of a fair with a lot of different things.”

The day after, Rodriquez was thinking of how he was going to top an alligator for next year’s fair.

“An elephant,” he said. “We might need to start looking for one.”

Source: Leadadvertiser.com

Bald eagle lives the high life

WOTAN the American Bald Eagle has been living the high life.

The bird, a star attraction at the Cotswold Falconry Centre at Batsford, near Moreton, spent a couple of nights at a luxury hotel near Bristol last week after soaring too high during a display.

Head falconer Mike Hope said the 10-year-old eagle, was “thermalling” and just went up, up and away until he was a tiny speck in the distance.

Wotan eventually came down to earth 45 miles away at the Berwick Lodge Hotel, Bristol, where guests were amazed to see him land in the hotel’s woodland grounds.

When India, the 10-year-old daughter of hotel owner Sarah Arikan, went to take some photos of the bird of prey, he tried to land on her arm, terrifying the girl and scratching her arm.

Eventually, after trying to get help from the RSPB, hotel staff managed to contact local bird trainer Lloyd Buck, who was able to lure Wotan down with some of the hotel’s finest lamb steak before securing him.

It was then that Wotan, who was ringed, was identified as belonging to the Cotswold Falconry Centre and Mike was contacted. He went to get his bird back last Tuesday.

“You are always relieved when they come back. The last time he went down that way was four years ago when he was scared off by military helicopters,” said Mike. “He ended up at the ski slope at Gloucester.”

Wotan, who was born at Hanover Zoo and arrived at the falconry centre eight years ago, has a six foot wingspan. There are about a dozen captive bred bald eagles in the UK.

The day after his latest adventure, Wotan was back at work visiting children at Blockley Primary School.

(source: www.cotswoldjournal.co.uk )

The gyrfalcon spotted on the Isle of Lewis since late April has a wingspan of more than 6 feet.

“Usually, they hang around in the Arctic Circle and move south a little in winter, but very rarely get to the U.K.,” said Royal Society for the Protection of Birds conservation officer Martin Scott.

He said the ash also appears to have kept a large number of geese in the Outer Hebrides from being able to migrate to the Arctic.

The RSBP said the gyrfalcon could actually be hunting the newly arrived geese.

Source: Earthweek.com

Jeffrey Lendrum was charged with climbing a mountain in south Wales to steal peregrine falcon eggs from their nest at Solihull Magistrates’ Court.

West Midlands Police said it is the first case of its kind for 20 years.

The 48-year-old, who has dual Zimbabwean and Irish nationality, was said to have the eggs strapped to his body to keep them warm.

He was charged with four offences involving the taking of the eggs from a peak in the Rhondda and hiding them to evade export restrictions.

He was also charged with the possession of climbing gear, an incubator and other equipment to take and keep wild bird eggs.

Twelve of the 14 eggs are believed to be alive.

Officers said they kept them safe by nesting them on their office computers and turning them regularly until wildlife rescue centre staff arrived to collect them. It is hoped they will eventually be returned to the wild once they are hatched.

Lendrum was remanded in custody on May 5 and he is due to appear at Warwick Crown Court later this month.

Source : Birmingham mail news

The Department of Environmental Conservation has conducted annual surveys since 1979. The highest winter count was in 2008, with 573 bald eagles spotted. DEC’s preliminary results for 2010 indicate that sightings may exceed that number.

In 1975, The state was able to document only one, unproductive pair of bald eagles after years of habitat loss, pesticide contamination and hunting.

In 2009, 173 breeding pairs raised 223 young. Eagles from Canada winter in New York, and during a Jan. 2010 survey, 459 were spotted, including 101 along the St. Lawrence River and 277 in the Hudson River and Delaware River basins.
The chronicle news>

This year has seen 46 breeding pairs – two more than 2008 – and 36 chicks fledge and leave their nests.

RSPB Scotland said it could be the healthiest population for 150 years.

Sea eagles were hunted to extinction in Scotland during the early 19th Century. Birds were first reintroduced to Mull between 1975 and 1985.

There are now more than 200 individual birds in Scotland, with recent releases of young in Fife.

Among the breeding birds this season were a new pair setting up on Lewis in the Western Isles and another in Lochaber.

Five of this year’s chicks have been fitted with satellite tags, and several of these are starting to make exploratory flights away from the immediate nest site areas.

The progress of two of these chicks on Mull is being tracked via the RSPB website at www.rspb.org.uk/mulleagletracking.

Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham said a record-breaking year for sea eagles was “wonderful news”.

She said: “Everyone involved should be congratulated on their achievements as thanks to this reintroduction a little piece of Scotland is being restored to its former glory.”

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) said landowners and land managers deserved thanks for their part in helping the raptors establish territories.

Prof Colin Galbraith, SNH policy and advice director chairman of the Sea Eagle Project Team, said: “This is important progress in re-establishing sea eagles across their historic range in Scotland, and is the result of a huge effort by many people over the past 30 years.

“It shows what can be done to reinstate a key part of our natural heritage.”

Radio tagged

Prof Jeremy Wilson, head of research for RSPB Scotland, added that there were plenty of vacant territories available for the eagles across Scotland.

However, crofters on Skye and in Wester Ross have blamed the birds for taking lambs.

In April, it was announced the fortunes of 60 lambs were to be monitored from birth to weaning to help determine whether large numbers of livestock fell prey to sea eagles.

Lambs on two holdings in Gairloch, Wester Ross, were radio tagged and observed by field workers.

SNH appointed FERA (Food and Environment Research Agency) to do the study.

The natural heritage agency said the study aimed to provide a scientific measure of the true level of lamb deaths directly attributable to sea eagles as opposed to other causes.

South Wales Police discovered the eagle at one of three properties searched in Gelli, Rhondda, after they were contacted by Belgian officers.

The arrested man was released on police bail while inquiries continue.

It is illegal to kill a golden eagle, or damage its nest, eggs or young under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

The bird of prey is one of the largest in the UK and is afforded the highest legal protection level under the act.

Tests are being carried out to uncover how the bird died.

Illegal trading

The south Wales operation followed the arrest of two men in Belgium by police targeting people who take birds and eggs from the wild to “launder” them into the legitimate market.

Species trafficked can include eagles, falcons, hawks and vultures, which can be sold for vast sums of money when accompanied by fake papers.

A total of 137 birds were examined at the three locations in Wales, as part of the joint operation involving the Belgian Federal Police, the National Wildlife Crime Unit and Animal Health.

Blood and feather samples were taken from 50 of those birds, and have been sent for DNA analysis in order to identify potential false breeding claims or illegal trading.

Sgt Ian Guildford, of South Wales Police, said the laundering of wild birds into the captive market is not only illegal but can have serious environmental consequences.

“The searches in Rhondda were just part of the much wider crackdown on this activity that threatens the wellbeing of some of Europe’s rarest birds,” he added.

The number of people viewing the nest via the webcam hovers around 2,000, said David Hancock, who operates this and other wildlife webcams through the not-for-profit Hancock Wildlife Foundation.

“I’m excited to get the third chick out,” said Hancock yesterday from his Surrey office.

The third chick was spotted yesterday morning by astute webcam viewers via the video-streaming site, he said.

Bald eagles rarely lay more than two eggs and it’s even more unusual to successfully raise three chicks — but this Sidney pair did it last year and appears to be heading for success this year, too. “Birds in the urban, suburban areas are where most of the [nests with] three chicks are being raised,” he said.

“It really says something neat about adaptability of these birds.”

Hancock, a biologist, flew over thousands of eagles’ nests along the coast in the early 1960s “and I only ever had two single nests in all of those thousands raise three young.”

“The city eagle … has a lot more food apparently available to it than in wilderness areas,” he said. It’s a big drain on the eagles to lay three eggs, he said, “but the stress on the bird to raise them is absolutely awesome.”

Source: www.hancockwildlife.org