2010 breeding season

Breeding monitoring is ensured by the guards from the Bald Ibis Conservation Project and supervised by Souss-Massa National Park staff. This allows you to record all the parameters related to reproduction, as the number of couples, the number of chicks hatched and the number of chicks that flew. In 2010, the NBI started nesting in the second week of February and finished in early June. Throughout the region 118 pairs were formed, of which 69 were in the national park and 49 in the Tamri colony.

However, only 105 came to lay eggs, of which 57 were in the park and 48 Tamri. This is probably explained by the inexperience of some young couples and sometimes by the lack of space in certain colonies.
A total of 138 chickens left the nest, that is,  10 chicks more than in 2009. 80 arrieved to this age in SMNP and 58 inTamri; the productivity en Massa is 1.4 chicks /pair in Massa and 1.2 in Tamri. The average of 1.3 chicks / pair have left the nest in 2010 represents an improvement over 2009 when reproductive success was only of 1.1chicks / pair.

The monitoring of reproduction has allowed to register an increase in the number ofbreeding pairs.

At the beginning of the conservation NBI conservation project, in 1994, the number of breeding pairs was 65. It grew significantly until 77 in 1996. That year, the unexplained mortality of 38 adults caused a reduction in the number of pairs to 59. The population didn't recover from that loss was until 2000, which again reached the initial number of pairs. Since 2007, this number exceeds one hundred.
The graph also shows that the number of chicks flown also follows a positive trend and the season of 2010 broke the record of 138 fledgings. There is some interannual fluctuations, probably dependent on environmental conditions. However, it is clear that actions undertaken within the project have encouraged this trend.Surveillance of colonies prevents discomfort and the establishent of some habitat management measures such as cleaning and widening of nesting platforms or supplying fresh water near the colonies helps improve nesting and survival.

May 15th 2010 ten fledgings

The NBI population in the region of Souss-Massa has grown in recent years also in the total number of individuals that, at present, is around 490 birds. These increases have been boosted, no doubt, by monitoring and conservation measures particularly during the critical period of reproduction.


In 2011 the season seems to have been also productive.

Turkish birds donated to Syria colony

In late 2009 the IAGNBI members celebrate a meeting in Palmyra, Syria, in order to explain the activities and results for every population of NBI and also to go forward in the conservation of the species.

One very special result of this meeting was the announcement of the initiative of transfering two ibis from the Bireçik colony to join the Syrian group.

Amina (female) and Ishtar (male) were 2010 youngsters from Bireçik, Turkey which were released in Syria after a brief settling period. This is the first time such a release had been tried and they successfully migrated to Southern Saudi Arabia guided by Salama and accompaigned by Ameer.

Ameer hatched in the wild in 2010 in Syria and is the offspring of Odeinat and untagged Zenobia - who sadly died after being found in a very weak condition two weeks after leaving Syria in southern Saudi Arabia.

After the hardest part of the migration flying through Arabian desert, the three young birds stopped transmitting and it appears they didn't survive. Anyway, the result of this experience was extremely positive because it was the first time to prove that young birds could migrate with a stranger to the South and opens a new area of conservation biology on NBI.