The appearance of gleaming steel and glass high-rise buildings in the Gulf emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai where only desert existed a few decades ago, coupled with a long tradition of breeding birds of prey, has made falcon-based pest control a thriving business, as building owners try to prevent pigeons from nesting and relieving themselves on their flawless facades.

“Pigeons are flying rats, they will come in and just nest,” said Richard Ellis, a falconer at Royal Shaheen Events.

“It is an ecological way to use falcons to control the populations of pigeons,” he said as he placed hoods over the birds’ heads as part of preparations to transport them to another pigeon-infested zone for a fresh hunt.

Royal Shaheen, a falconry enterprise based in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, makes up to half of its revenue from pest control on Sir Bani Yas island, a tourist destination where imported wild animals roam in a safari park.

Falcons, some able to dive at speeds over 320 km/h (200 mph), don’t kill the pigeons but are used to scare them away from public places.

But still, not everyone approves of using a bird that is so widely revered in the Gulf for such workmanlike purposes.

Centuries ago in the region, Bedouin tribesmen used falcons — “saqr” in Arabic — to hunt for meat in the winter, when the only food available were dates, camel milk and bread. It is the national symbol of the seven United Arab Emirates, featured on road signs and the national currency.

Emirati falconer Mohammed Salem al-Kabi, who keeps 17 falcons in the desert oasis town of Al Ain, said using falcons as pest controllers was a travesty for such a majestic bird, which also does not like this kind of work.

“There are more efficient ways such as pills to make pigeons drowsy or using ultrasound to chase them away,” Kabi said, gathered among his friends in an air-conditioned tent with a flat screen TV on the wall showing falcons hunting.

Around the world however, where many city squares such as the Piazza San Marco in Venice or Trafalgar Square in London are famous for their large pigeon populations, falcons have already been deployed to control unwanted birds.

“About 25 companies in Britain use falcons for pest control, and there are many all over the world, so clearly it works and is cost effective,” said Nick Fox, Director at International Wildlife Consultants Limited in Wales.

Fox said Britain’s Houses of Parliament and a stadium in Cardiff were also protected by trained hawks.

Falcons have also been used at the tennis courts of Wimbledon to keep the world championships pigeon-free, and in the past at New York’s JFK Airport to scare off gulls and geese from entering the airspace and prevent bird strikes — where birds are sucked into jet engines.

THRIVING BUSINESS

David Stead, owner of rival Al Hurr Falconry Services in the UAE, said falcon business was flying: “The market is massive, there is space for more. We don’t tread on each other’s toes.”

“We fly at all their hotels, Burj Al Arab, Emirates Towers, Madinat Jumeirah,” he said of his top client, luxury hotelier Jumeirah Group in Dubai.

In the UAE, Ras al-Khaimah airport, the University of Al Ain, as well as hotels in Fujairah have all expressed interest in employing falcons, said Royal Shaheen director Peter Bergh.

For Bergh’s 40 falcons, fees range from 40,000 dirhams($10,890) up to 70,000 dirhams per month.

“Here the problem gets attention because of the glossy, shiny buildings which they spoil,” said Bergh.

Regardless the opposition to pest control, falcon-breeding and -trading in the desert oil producer is on the rise.

“Falconry is now expanding. It used to be only for rich people and sheikhs to hunt,” said Abdulla Lootah, an owner of a farm in Dubai, which breeds around 50 to 60 falcons each year.

“Because falcons are easy to get and they are everywhere, everybody wants to have one. That’s why we started this business,” he said.

Some 18,000 falcons are currently registered in the UAE, said Abdulrab al-Hamiri, a deputy manager at Abu Dhabi’s Environment Agency.

Every year, some 800 falconers from the Gulf, including around 300 from the Emirates, gather for speed races, though only royalty and the rich can afford to go on grand hunting expeditions abroad in countries such as Russia and Kazakhstan where annual permits can cost up to $300,000.

“It is really expensive. You have to rent land first and have a permit for hunting,” said Lootah, who keeps some 120 breeding falcons in air-conditioned spaces as mercury climbs well over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in the summer.

ILLEGAL TRADE

The increasing interest in using the birds for business as well as a hobby has however created another problem. Some falconers prefer wild falcons to birds raised in captivity and that has boosted legal and illegal trade in the species.

“With the break-up of the USSR in 1993, large tracts of Asia have been opened up to trapping, some of which is through legal quotas such as Mongolia, but some is illegal,” Fox said.

“China and Kazakhstan used to have an export quota but have stopped trading in recent years. Lack of legal sources has sent much of it underground and so it continues illegally,” he said.

The hunting of wild animals including falcons in the UAE was banned in 1978, Hamiri said, and the declaration of a new law in 2002 to regulate the trade of endangered species and falcons has dramatically decreased the illegal trade.

“In regard to the UAE, we have increased efforts to combat smuggling, and as per our records, we intercept a few individuals annually mainly at airports and land border crossings,” Hamiri said. “In some cases it’s live falcons or mounted specimens… Sedating falcons and hiding them in a car.”

Every season around 600 falcons are estimated to arrive in the UAE, one of the biggest markets in the Gulf, prompting airlines to even issue “falcon passports” to regulate transport.

These days, falconers are willing to pay up to $270,000 for the rare hunting and sports birds, well up from around $30 in the late 1940s.

“It is expensive in value, but it is precious to our hearts,” said Kabi, who keeps a perch for favorite falcons in his bedroom.

($1=3.672 UAE Dirhams)

[source: reuters]

I just fit the jesses for her… still didn’t really weight or manned her yet. I will start to manned her tomorrow, today I think I will just let her more settle down at the new environment.

I don’t fit any anklets to her as her leg is very small (compared to Goshawk), so jesses which fit directly to her leg will be more suitable..

She seem to try to ‘bite’ the jesses, hopefully it is strong enough to hold her.

I will try to post the update from time to time… do wish me luck in manning and training her.

First hawk is an adult female passage bird. She was adult and have very bad condition when my friend get her (from some keeper that catch her and keep her in small cage). There are lots of defect with her… there are scar on her face and somehow her nerve is not in good condition anymore.

Since he have bad experience with human, it take a month for me to manned and train her. Even after a month, she is still hesitate to come sometimes… (by the way, she is very moody). Luckily after 2 month she show her true form and she become an impressive ‘hunter’… I never expect a hawk with the condition to become a fierce hunter like her… She is very brave to catch a very large moorhen… the moorhen is even larger than her… she try to grab the moorhen but because of the size, the moorhen manage to drag her to the pond nearby and she nearly drown. She is also fast enough to catch a common mynah. She ‘run away’ few month back… due to a pair of kites that chase her away from my friend house. (I guess the pair have some nest nearby that is why there are more aggressive toward any other bird of prey in that area)… I wish her luck and hope she have a good life out there… and I am sure she will… since she is a passage bird… and compared to the time she come to me, her condition is totally different.

The second hawk that I train this year is an adult male passage hawk. He is very nice, I think this is the nicest Crested Goshawk that I encounter so far…She is sweet and fast… very good behavior… She fly free by the first week I train her (the owner sent to me the second day the trapper catch her)… and she went to hunting the second week! I suspect she is the record for all passage crested Goshawk (because normally it take more than 2 week for hawk to be able to go hunting). At first the owner plan to breed her with the first hawk that I train. They get along very well and always call to each other. Too bad the female left.

The third crested goshawk that I train this year is a young passage male hawk. She is more stubborn and only eat on my fist on the forth day I get her! Having said that, by the seventh day, she is very calm and socialize well with everyone… the different is that she didn’t like to sit on the bow perch… but on the ground… the owner take it back and will continue to fly her… deep inside me, I think she have a big potential to be a fierce hunter looking at the way she come to my fist and grab the meat…
And till the forth hawk coming… I wish all falconer out there good luck… (I will update this ‘training story” again if I have the chances to train the forth one this year)

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]

He sent me another CITES since the last CITES has expired. I will reapply the import CITES from my side and hopefully everything will go smoothly.

He promise to get back to me on 24th April… which is today. Let see if I will able to get any feedback from him or he just went ‘missing’..

I still hope I will able to get the Gabar… I wait for so long to get hold of any BOP for my falconry purposes… now that in my location, only Gabar Goshawk (is one of the Bird of Prey that can be kept legally)… I somehow need to get hold of some of them.

Lets wait and see

I am actually very happy with the progress of this. I make payment amount USD300 to the exporter to confirm booking of 8 head of Gabar Goshawk after getting the export CITES from him.

Now I am preparing for the leg band. The bird that can be import need to have some leg band and the importer unable to find it so I will need to send it to him.

In the mean time, he is preparing for the health certificate. Once he got the bird and the health certificate he can start to arrange for the shipping to me.

Based on the exporter, he should be able to ship the bird to me in 30 days… so by early March I should be able to received the bird.

The main concern that I have is that the bird didn’t survive when reach my country… hopefully they are sturdy enough to survive.

I have checked, the airport from that country to my country… due to 2 transit, the time it take (for a human) will be around 27 hour to 36 hour! I am not sure about the animals though…

Wish me luck…

If I able to bring them in, I hope I can try to breed them… it is too precious if just keep them without breeding them since they will need to travel half the world to me.

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