PATERZELL, Germany (AP) — How do you teach a bird how and where to fly?
The distinctive Northern Bald Ibis, hunted essentially to extinction in the 17th century, has been revived over the past two decades through breeding and rewilding efforts. But the birds, known for their distinctive black and iridescent green plumage, bald red heads and long curved beaks, don’t instinctively know which way to fly to migrate without the guidance of their wild-born elders. So a team of scientists and conservationists stepped in as foster parents and flight instructors.
“We have to teach them the migration route,” said biologist Johannes Fritz.
The Northern Bald Ibis once flew over much of Europe, including North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Bavaria in southern Germany. Migratory birds were also considered a delicacy, and the bird known in German as the Waldrapp has disappeared from Europe, although a few colonies survive elsewhere.
The efforts of Fritz and the Waldrappteam, an Austria-based conservation and research group, have increased the Central European population from zero to almost 300 since they began their project in 2002.
This success moves the species from “critically endangered” to “endangered,” and it’s the first attempt to reintroduce a continentally extinct migratory bird species, Fritz says.
However, while Northern Bald Ibis still exhibit their natural migratory drive, they do not know which direction to fly without the guidance of their wild-born elders. Early reintroduction attempts by the Waldrappteam were largely unsuccessful because the birds were not taught their migration route, and many disappeared shortly after release. Instead of returning to suitable wintering grounds, such as Tuscany in Italy, they flew off in different directions and eventually died out.
So the Waldrapp team stepped in as foster parents and flight instructors for a Central European population of descendants from multiple zoo colonies that had been released into the wild in the hopes of forming a migratory group. This year marks the 17th voyage with human-led migration guides, and the second time they’ve had to pilot a new route to Spain because of climate change.
To prepare for the journey, the chicks are taken from their breeding colonies when they are just a few days old. They are taken to an aviary supervised by the adoptive parents in the hope of “impressioning” them, so the birds can bond with those humans by trusting them along the migration route.
Barbara Steininger, the Waldrapp team’s foster mother, said she acts as “their bird mother.”
“We feed them, we clean them, we clean their nests. We take good care of them and make sure they’re healthy birds,” she said. “But we also interact with them.”
Steininger and other foster families then sit in the back of a microlight aircraft, waving and shouting encouragement through a megaphone as the aircraft flies through the air.
It’s an odd scene: The plane looks like a flying go-kart, with a giant fan at the back and a yellow parachute holding it aloft. Yet the contraption, piloted by Fritz, is trailed by three dozen birds as it soars over alpine meadows and foothills.
Fritz was inspired by “Father Goose” Bill Lishman, a naturalist who taught Canadian geese to fly in his ultralight aircraft in 1988. He later guided endangered American cranes on safe routes and founded the nonprofit Operation Migration. Lishman’s work inspired the 1996 film “Fly Away Home,” but it stars a young girl as the geese’s “mother.”
Like Lishman, Fritz and his team’s efforts have paid off. The first bird migrated independently from Tuscany back to Bavaria in 2011. More fly the 550-kilometer (342-mile) route each year, and the team hopes the central European population will grow to more than 350 birds by 2028 and become self-sustaining.
But the effects of climate change are now causing Waldrapp birds to migrate later in the season, forcing them to cross the Alps in colder, more dangerous weather conditions – without the benefit of the warm air currents known as thermals that allow the birds to soar without expending extra energy.
In response, Waldrappteam has launched a new route pilot from Bavaria to Andalusia in southern Spain in 2023.
This year the route is around 2,800 kilometres (1,740 miles) – about 300 kilometres (186 miles) longer than last year’s route. Earlier this month, from an airfield in Paterzell in Upper Bavaria, the team guided 36 birds along a leg with bright blue skies and a tailwind increasing their speed.
The entire journey to Spain can take up to 50 days and end in early October. But Fritz says the effort is bigger than just the Northern Bald Ibis: It’s about clearing the way for other threatened migratory species to fly.
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Dazio reported from Berlin.