Bringing birds back to Iraq

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:

 

 

Bringing birds back to Iraq

 

BAGHDAD--Rediscovering and restoring the bird life of Iraq is

an obsession for ornithologists who remember the nation as the

crossing of flight paths for migratory species coming and going from

all parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe.

The Mesopotamian marshlands, twice the size of the Florida

Everglades, were reputedly the richest birding habitat in the world

before dictator Saddam Hussein drained 90% in 1991 to try to flush

out rebels against his rule.

About 40% of the marshlands have been reflooded and restored

since 2003. All 150 bird species known to have lived there in 1979

have been seen in recent winter-and-summer surveys, Birdlife

International adviser Richard Porter told BBC News in January 2007.

That leaves many of the 237 species native to the rest of

Iraq still largely unaccounted for, between habitat loss and decades

of unrestrained shooting.

The effort to find and protect Iraq birds advanced with the

January 25, 2007 publication of a Field Guide to the Birds of Iraq

in Arabic, assembled by Iraqi and Jordanian birders and biologists

who were funded by the Canadian International Devel-opment Agency,

the World Bank, and the Ornithological Society of the Middle East.

Canada-Iraq Marshlands Initiative director Barry Warner hoped

that the book would encourage Iraqis to better respect birds and bird

habitat. But continued fighting tends to thwart most efforts on

behalf of any animals, no matter how small.

Alabama Wildlife Center director Anne Miller and colleague

Chris DePew, for instance, in June and July 2006 spent two months

advising and encouraging civilian contractor John Mayberry by e-mail,

as Mayberry worked to rehabilitate an injured fledgling Hutton's

little owl that he discovered near the Baghdad airport.

" Mayberry made some progress, " DePew told ANIMAL PEOPLE,

" but unfortunately the owl died from the stress of a nearby mortar

attack before he could be released into the wild. "

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,

founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.

We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]