The bird had not been observed for three hundred years in the Pyrénées-Orientales. At the beginning of October, four bald ibises were seen, in the wild, perched on a roof, in Arles-sur-Tech, near Ceret, reports France Bleu. It is also one of the most endangered species in the world. It had also been exterminated by man in Northern Europe, around three centuries ago.
Suffice it to say that, for the Roussillon Ornithological Group (GOR), “this news quickly stirred up local ornithologists”. “At first, we were completely incredulous, because it’s a species that has been extinct for around 300 years. There is only one wild colony left, of around a hundred individuals, near us in Morocco and around ten individuals in Syria,” says the president of the GOR, speaking to France Bleu.
Learn to migrate to an ultralight aircraft
But the specialist believes that these are undoubtedly individuals from reintroduction programs carried out in Austria and Spain, as he explains on the GOR Facebook profile: “This program is based on reacclimatization to the wild life of many bald ibises bred in captivity. One aspect of this reacclimatization consists of teaching them to migrate. »
And learning requires very specific practice. “The technique consists of entrusting very young chicks to a human “adoptive parent”, so that they are sufficiently confident to follow him throughout the migratory route”, we can read on Facebook.
Then, each year, the “adoptive parents”, on board a microlight, guide groups of young ibises to their wintering areas in Italy or Spain. “Some are now autonomous and carry out their migration without the help of humans. This is undoubtedly the case of those observed in Arles-sur-Tech,” deduces the GOR.
