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PATTERZEL, Germany (AP) — How do you teach a bird how to fly and where to fly?
The distinctive northern bald ibis, hunted to extinction in the 17th century, has been revived through breeding and reintroduction efforts over the past two decades. But the birds—recognizable by their glossy green-black plumage, bald red head and long, curved beak—don’t instinctively know which direction to fly in on migration without guidance from larger, wild-born birds. So A team of scientists and environmentalists stepped in as foster parents and flight trainers.
“We have to teach them the migration route,” said biologist Johannes Fritz.
The northern bald ibis once soared over North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and much of Europe, including Bavaria in southern Germany. The migratory birds were considered a delicacy, and the bird, known as the waldrap in Germany, has disappeared from Europe, although some colonies remain elsewhere.
The efforts of Fritz and the Waldrup team, an Austria-based conservation research group, have raised the Central European population from zero to nearly 300 since their project began in 2002.
This achievement has moved the species from “critically endangered” to “endangered”, and Fritz says this is the first attempt to bring back an extinct migratory bird species on a continental scale.
But while northern bald ibises still show a natural desire to migrate, they don’t know which direction to fly in without guidance from wild-born elders. Early attempts to reintroduce the birds to the wild were largely unsuccessful, as most disappeared shortly after release, having not been taught the migration route. Instead of returning to suitable wintering grounds such as Tuscany, Italy, they flew in different directions and eventually died.
So Waldrapp’s team stepped in as foster parents and flight instructors for the Central Europeans, who were descendants of multiple zoo colonies and released into the wild in the hope of establishing a migratory population. This year marks the 17th migration with human-led guides, and the second time they’ve had to navigate a new route to Spain because of climate change.
To prepare them for the journey, the chicks are removed from the breeding colonies when they are only a few days old. They are transferred to an aviary supervised by foster parents in the hope of “leaving an imprint” – when the birds bond with these humans until they eventually trust them along the migration route.
Barbara Steininger, a foster mother to the Waldrap team, said she acts like a “mother bird.”
“We feed them, we clean them, we clean their nests. We take good care of them and make sure they are healthy birds,” she said. “But we also interact with them.”
Stinger and the other adoptive parents then sit in the back of a light plane, waving and shouting encouragement through a loudspeaker as the plane soars through the air.
It's a strange sight: the plane looks like a small racing car with a giant propeller at the back and a yellow parachute keeping it in the air. Yet the plane Fritz is piloting is followed by thirty birds as it soars over mountain meadows and mountain slopes.
Fritz was inspired by naturalist Bill Leishman, who taught Canada geese to fly alongside his ultralight aircraft in 1988. He later guided endangered cranes to safe routes and founded the nonprofit Operation Migration. Leishman’s work inspired the 1996 film “Fly Away Home,” but the film features a young girl as the geese’s “mother.”
Like Leishman, Fritz and his team’s efforts have been successful. The first bird migrated independently to Bavaria in 2011 from Tuscany. More birds have been flying the same route of more than 550 kilometers (342 miles) each year, and the team hopes to have more than 350 birds in Central Europe by 2028 and become self-sufficient.
But the effects of climate change mean that walruses are migrating later in the season now, forcing them to cross the Alps in colder, more dangerous weather – without the help of warm air currents, known as thermals, which rise upward and help the birds soar without expending extra energy.
In response, the Waldrapp team has tested a new route in 2023, from Bavaria to Andalusia in southern Spain.
This year’s route is about 2,800 kilometres (1,740 miles) long – nearly 300 kilometres (186 miles) longer than last year. Earlier this month, from an airfield in Patersel, in Upper Bavaria, the team guided 36 birds along a single stage through clear blue skies and a tailwind that increased their speed.
The entire journey to Spain can take up to 50 days and ends in early October. But Fritz says the effort is about more than just northern bald ibises: It aims to pave the way for other threatened migratory species to fly.
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Dazio reports from Berlin.
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