Anyone who has studied, and loved, the Sahara Desert can surely bring to mind the Ostrich with the red neck, the northern race of a species that is more familiar in the southern and eastern regions of Africa. Sadly, wars and the advent of motor vehicles in the last century led to the demise of much of the remarkable wildlife of the Sahel-Sahara region, so the appearance once again of this beautiful, highly endangered bird's silhouette on the crest of a dune could signal a conservation battle not yet lost.
The government of Chad, together with NGOs African Parks Network and SaharaConservation, decided to make this dream come true and launched a project called Sougounaw - 'for the Ostrich' in the local language. Its story began in October 2019, when a bold action plan was given the official go-ahead. According to this plan, in February the following year young wild Ostriches would be collected in Zakouma National Park in the south-east of Chad the last stronghold of the subspecies and half of them would be flown to the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Wildlife Reserve 432 kilometres away. The remaining birds would be transported to the Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve, where I am based, 734 kilometres from Zakouma. The chicks would be raised to the age of 18 months in their new homes and then, in the middle of the rainy season, they would be released into the wild.
Bu hikaye African Birdlife dergisinin November/December 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye African Birdlife dergisinin November/December 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
