In June 1996 the second breeding pair of Arabian leopards in the world became a fact. Nimrod Felix, the leopard from Yemen, mated with a female on breeding loan from Oman three months earlier and this resulted in an uncomplicated pregnancy. A litter was born on 2 June, but it did not survive. The exact reason for this is not clear. The fact that few first litters ever survive certainly played a role, but also the weather must have been a factor: it was very humid and unseasonably hot (44°C). While the death of the litter was definitely a disappointment, the event proved, nevertheless, that the two leopards were compatible and fertile and that the female was a good mother. At the time of writing, the pair has mated again and this time the ETA for the kittens is end of December, which should be very favourable.

In the meantime plans are underway to send Nimrod Felix for a visit to Oman, where he can impregnate two of the females in the Beit al Barakat Breeding Center, while another female will come to the UAE, hopefully to be mated with the 8-year old male that is in a private collection. Once this is achieved, there will be a good mix of all the various genes that are available at present.

From the wild, several reports reached the Arabian Leopard Trust during the second ALT wildlife survey that took place in the first three months of 1996. Local tribesmen took Moaz Sawaf and Chris Stuart to a remote place where they said they knew leopards to occur. Indeed spoor was found, but it was not fresh. A few days later, however, fresh droppings were found in the same location. Then a leopard sighting was reported in the same area by the local tribesmen, who offered to look after the safety of the leopard. Two months later, a leopard was sighted at Wadi Ghalila and Moaz received a phonecall telling him that a hunting party was being put together to kill it as several goats had been killed by the leopard. Moaz took time off to talk to the tribesmen and after long deliberations established that only one goat had been killed (others having succumbed to disease). Fortunately, Moaz was able to persuade the men to call off the hunt. When he camped out that night, he heard the leopard roar not far away (a thank you or a mating call?).

The tribesmen of the high Musandam mountains are quite eager to become involved in any nature reserve that could be established in the area, if this would provide them with jobs. They are true mountain men and would rather spend their time up in their birthplace than on the coast, which is the only place where they can earn a living. The 1996 ALT survey resulted in proposals for five separate nature reserves, two of which are in mountain areas where leopards could be protected. Management plans for these reserves are being drawn up and will be presented to the relevant rulers during the winter. If all goes well, some of these reserves could be up and running before next summer. There is strong need now for the training of local men to become game wardens and rangers. Although adventure and ecotourism could be a major source of income for the maintenance of the reserves, outside funds will be necessary to set them up and to pay personnel costs.

Local 'Desert Rangers' provide invaluable assistance to the National Avian Research Center.

In an attempt to gauge the numbers and distribution of houbara visiting the Emirates, NARC's researchers have been working with the 'Desert Rangers' from the camps of Hamra., Ashtan, Sila, Tawi, Gamra, Wutayd, Schlef for the last two winter seasons. The Abu Dhabi Desert Rangers are responsible for the enforcement of the Federal Decree - Law No.9 for 1983 - which placed an Emirates' wide ban on the hunting of gazelle, hare, dubb lizard, and wild cow, as well as a ban on ' the hunting, gathering or destruction of the eggs of wild and sea birds of various kinds including doves, orioles and small birds'.

Commenting on the Desert Ranger's abilities, Dr Frederic Launay, leader of the project remarked: 'Without the help of the Desert Rangers, who are incredible at tracking animals and have an intimate knowledge of the desert, we would know very little about the houbara that visit the deserts of the UAE in the winter months.' He went on to say: 'The houbara bustard is a very secretive bird which makes the accurate surveying of numbers very difficult, but the Desert Rangers live and work in the desert and have the amazing ability to locate them simply by following their tracks. This ability to read the houbara's activities provides us with invaluable information about such things as how many there are, which direction the bird is heading in, and even what they have been eating.'

For the last year, the responsibility for recording the information provided by the Desert Rangers has fallen to Rob Sheldon, a student on placement with NARC from the University of Hertfordshire, UK. With the help of Shadi Akran, acting as translator, Sheldon has visited the 'Desert Rangers' camps requesting information on the number and location of the houbara. Locations of houbara sighting were recorded onto a questionnaire and converted into GPS co-ordinates. The resulting positions were then plotted on a map of Abu Dhabi Emirate.

Over the year, Sheldon has developed a deep respect and understanding of the Desert Rangers.He says: 'Many of the older rangers followed the traditional bedouin lifestyle prior to the oil-led economic boom of the 1970s and 1980s and have now passed on their skills to the younger men. Although to the outsider the desert often appears to be a featureless environment, the rangers can identify individual trees, rocky outcrops and sand dunes and use them as navigational landmarks. They can identify most animals living in the desert by their tracks, they can tell the age of the tracks and even certain individual animals.'

So far the information gathered by NARC from the 'Desert Rangers' has revealed that the number of wild houbara visiting the UAE may be as low as a couple of hundred individuals. As one 'Desert Ranger' commented to Sheldon: 'About 15 years ago there were lots of houbara in the area but the number has declined due to too many cars and people. Houbara do not like disturbance.'

It is hoped that the National Avian Research Center, with the help of individuals such as the 'Desert Rangers' will soon form an effective conservation strategy aimed at protecting and increasing the number of houbara visiting the UAE in the winter months.

Pinatubo eruption damages Red Sea coral

Studies carried out in the northern Red Sea have shown that the huge increase in eutrophication in parts of the northern Red Sea in 1992 and the subsequent demise of large areas of coral was directly attributable to the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.

The volcanic eruption , amongst the largest this century, produced over 20 milion tonnes of volcanic dust which blocked out solar radiation , lowering surface temperatures across the globe. Concomitant surface cooling of the Red Sea increased the depth of vertical mixing which in turn transported more nutrients than usual to the surface waters. This nutrient enrichment resulted in a massive incease in algal and phytoplankton blooms. Researchers found that at its peak the algal mat was more than 15 cms thick, completely interfering with water flow over the corals and therefore cutting off their food supply. It seems that over 70 per cent of corals were smothered in some areas.

The phenomenon whereby temperatures drop after a major volcanic eruption is well documented from the Middle East.

IUCN Meeting in Oman
13-14 January 1996
Report by Fred Launay

The IUCN Species Survival Commission has established a Houbara Bustard Working Group to assist countries in developing the necessary international cooperation.

The first meeting of the Working Group was held in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman on the 13-14 of January 1996. Around 50 delegates representing Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazhakhakhstan, India, Afghanistan, as well as representatives of IUCN and the Bonn Convention Secretariat, attended the meeting.

During this meeting the need for more cooperative research and collaboration concerning the Asian population of houbara bustard was stressed. In order to encourage and coordinate technical and research aspects of the Working Group it was decided to appoint a Secretariat. The Working Group will operate under the auspices of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and the Secretariat will be the National Avian Research Center in Abu Dhabi. The goals of the group are to promote and to implement a network of researchers working on all aspects of the bioloby of the houbra bustard, and primarily the Asian subspecies.

Under the auspices of IUCN, NARC will encourage and coordinate research on houbara bustard to provide international conservation bodies with relevant scientific information so that they can implement appropriate conservation measures to secure the future of the houbara bustard.

International Conference on Biology of Coastal Environments (ICBCE 97)
To be held from 6-9 April 1997 in Bahrain.

The University of Bahrain, College of Science, Department of Biology is hosting a conference on the biology of coastal environments from 6-9 April 1997 at which more than 100 participants from all over the world are expected to attend. The meeting is expected to provide a broad forum for marine biologists and related scientists from all over the world to communicate and discuss many aspects of the coastal environment. Topics within the following themes will be discussed in plenary lectures, oral presentations and poster displays:

* Aquaculture and Fisheries

* Coral Reefs

* Intertidal Zone

* Mangrove

* Pollution

* Supralittoral Zone

A Whale of a Story

The following was picked off MARMAM, the marine mammal bulletin board on the World Wide Web for your amusement!

"I am absolutely not making this incident up; in fact I have it all on videotape. The tape is from a local TV news show in Oregon, which sent a reporter out to cover the removal of a 45-foot, eight-ton dead whale that washed up on the beach. The responsibility for getting rid of the carcass was placed on the Oregon State Highway Division, apparently on the theory that highways and whales are very similar in the sense of both being large objects.

"So anyway, the highway engineers hit on a plan (remember, I am not making this up) of blowing up the whale with dynamite. The thinking here was that the whale would be blown into small pieces, which would be eaten by seagulls, and that would be that. A textbook whale removal.

"So, they moved the spectators back up the beach, put a half-ton of dynamite next to the whale and set it off. I am probably guilty of understatement when I say that what follows, on video tape, is the most wonderful event in the history of the universe. First you see the whale carcass disappear in a huge blast of smoke and flame. Then you hear the happy spectators shouting "Yayy!" and "Whee!".

"Then, suddenly, the crowd's tone changes.

"You hear a new sound like 'Splud!'. You hear a woman's voice shouting, 'Here come pieces of .... MY GOD!' Something smears the camera lens.

"Later the reporter explains, 'The humour of the entire situation suddenly gave way to a run for survival as huge chunks of whale blubber fell everywhere.' One piece caved in the roof of a car parked more than a quarter mile away. Remaining on the beach were several rotting whale sectors the size of condominium units. There were no signs of seagulls, who had, no doubt, permanently relocated in Brazil. This is a very sobering videotape. Here at the Institute we watch it often, especially at parties.

"But this is no time for gaiety. This is a time to get hold of the folks at the Oregon State Highway Division and ask them, when they get done cleaning up the beaches, to give us an estimate on the US Capitol."

The Middle East Falcon Research Group

The Middle East Falcon Research Group (MEFRG), is a unique organization representing a common forum for the exchange of information and the co-ordination of collaborative programmes between experts involved and concerned with falcons and falconry in the Middle East.

Towards the end of 1995 the MEFRG held a historic three day 'Specialist Workshop' in Abu Dhabi city, sponsored by the National Avian Research Center (NARC), whose Head of Veterinary Science, Dr Jaime Samour, is Chairman of the group. Around 50 experts, including falconers, avian veterinarians, raptor biologists and conservationists, attended the workship from ten different countries. Four main subject areas were covered in the workshop; falcon medicine, saker falcon taxonomy, saker falcon research and conservation and public awareness of falcons and falconry.

Focus on the saker falcon
The main focus of the MEFRG's Specialist Workshop was the saker falcon, Falco cherrug, which is the most popular falcon used by Arab falconers in the Middle East. Arab falconers have been pursuing falconry for almost 3000 years. In the past, falcons were used to catch quarry, such as the houbara bustard, (Chalmydotis undulata macqueeni) to supplement their diet. Today falconry is pursued as a traditional sport. It is believed by the group that with sound research, care, understanding, respect and good sustainable management of falcon species, quarry species and the habitats used in Arab falconry, there is no reason why Arab falconry should not continue. With sound management, Arab falconry can have beneficial effects for falconers, wildlife, and local people in the countries where hunting is conducted.

Recommendations for action

As a result of the presentations and discussions at the workshop, the following recommendations for action wree made by the group:

Health and diseases of falcons
*The Veterinary Scientists will collaborate in surveys to identify the main causes of sickness and death of falcons and continue the collection of baseline biomedical data. In addition, the vets will promote the use of preventive medicine and better husbandry and management of captive falcons. There are plans to conduct studies on the effects and types of stress in captive falcons.

The classification of the saker falcon
* As it is still not clear as to exactly how the saker falcon should be classified in relation to other falcons, field biologists and veterinarians agreed to continue to collect blood samples from different forms of live falcons for further genetic studies. In addition, researchers will collect skeletons, skins and photographs of saker falcons so that their genetic make-up can be related to physical appearance. An understanding of the classification of the saker falcon is essential when conservation measures are discussed in the future.

Monitoring by field biologists
* As it is important that the status of the saker falcon is known in the wild, it was agreed to try and establish contact with other field biologists who are monitoring saker populations, so that information can be exchanged.

Public awareness
* It was agreed that literature and videos for falconers should be produced. These projects will be supported by the National Avian Research Center's Public Relations Department.

Public falcon hospital
*As surveys of falconers have shown, there is a need for the creation of more falcon hospitals in the Middle East. The MEFRG agreed to conduct feasibility studies for a falcon hospital in Abu Dhabi Emirate. It was suggested that a public awareness centre could be attached to this hospital.

Arab Falconer's Association
*It was agreed that the MEFRG would encourage the establishment of an 'Arab Falconer's Association' which will be run by Arab falconers for Arab falconers. The MEFRG would provide support and assistance to this Association.