The island nature reserve and experimental agricultural base of
Sir Bani Yas has undergone a massive amount of land reclamation,
planting, irrigation and wildlife husbandry creating a place that
somehow defies all expectations in terms of what can grow and
live in this southern Arabian Gulf region. Flourishing wildlife
on the island probably reflects how the region once was, at a
time of greater rainfall and greener pastures. Proposals were
discussed with UNESCO during the year, concerning international
recognition of this unique wildlife reserve with a view to enhancing
its status as a wildlife conservation centre. The following account
is extracted from the book Natural Emirates, published in November
1996.
First impressions of the island of Sir Bani Yas depend upon one’s
method of approach. A boat-crossing of the narrow stretch of water
between it and the mainland of Abu Dhabi at Jebel Dhanna, is dominated
by sight of the island’s cone-shaped central ‘mountains’, providing
an easy navigational beacon. As one sails closer, these turn out
to be a strange mixture of red, green and brown rock formations.
Circumnavigating the island, it soon becomes apparent that there
is much more to Sir Bani Yas than this unusual structure, for
it is surrounded by gently sloping plains which merge with a fairly
level coastal shelf. The shoreline itself ranges from mangrove
covered sand-banks and hidden inlets, to buttressed foreshore
and, finally, a well constructed small harbour at which one lands.
The approach by air, by helicopter, or indeed fixed wing aircraft,
offers an entirely different view. Surrounded by a glittering
blue sea the island stands out like a green emerald placed on
a jewellers display cloth. First impressions are of its serried
ranks of trees, which cover almost half its land area, and, secondly,
its obvious abundance of wildlife. Large herds of gazelle skoot
across the mountain side whilst over a hundred white Arabian oryx
graze contentedly within their large enclosure. Close to the helicopter
pad are more exotic wildlife: giraffe, emu and a range of African
mammals. The helicopter ride itself is a noisy experience and
after being deposited on firm ground, the whirling blades once
more lift the craft skywards. Gradually, a beautiful peace and
tranquillity descends, calming jagged nerves. Finally, with the
aircraft gone, a sense of urgency builds up to explore on land
everything that has just caught the eye from above.
Sir Bani Yas has attracted man for a long time. The central salt-plug
of Jebel Wahid, for that is what geologists tell us forms the
strange crystalline mountain, was not always surrounded by water.
Towards the end of the last Ice Age, around 10,000 years ago,
sea-level in the Gulf was considerably lower than it is today
and much of the present day seabed was above high-water mark.
At that time Sir Bani Yas was part of mainland Arabia and its
craggy hills rose up above a green plateau on which a wide variety
of wildlife flourished. This verdant countryside, watered by ancient
rivers, undoubtedly attracted fishermen, hunters and gatherers
and we have firm evidence of people living here between 6000 and
7000 years ago. Archaeological excavations on the island are being
carried out by the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey and
whether it is a Late Stone Age site at which a flint ’tile-knife’
was discovered, a fisherman’s midden containing the remains of
dugong and turtle bones, or the pre-Islamic Nestorian church and
monastery with its intricate plaster embellishments, Sir Bani
Yas’s past is gradually being revealed in all its varied facets.
Throughout history this fascinating island has offered challenges
and opportunities for those who chose to make it their home. For
the people of the Bani Yas tribal confederation, after whom the
island is named, it offered a refuge and staging post, with a
safe anchorage, good fishing and the prized Gulf pearling beds
nearby. Today the island is part of an unusual environmental and
biological experiment. Initially Sheikh Zayed chose Sir Bani Yas
as a place to spend time with his family, following an age old
bedouin tradition that took advantage of the sea-breezes during
the hot summer weather. A love of wildlife and nature led Zayed
to the idea of sharing his island with endangered Arabian species
such as sand gazelle and oryx. Little by little, year by year,
he developed the island into a special reserve where wildlife
holds pride of place and where visitors are able to gain a taste
of how it must have been thousands of years ago, when this landscape
resembled the savannahs of Africa and shared many species with
its neighbouring continent.
There are basically three kinds of ‘enclosure’ on the island,
i.e. ones to keep animals within a defined area, ones that provide
living space for humans, and finally the rest of the island in
which a large number of animals roam at will. Among the latter
are the Arabian or mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella cora), known
to the locals as dhabi. It was this animal that gave the emirate
its name since the island on which the capital city now stands
is known as ‘possession of the gazelle’ or Abu Dhabi. Other gazelles
include the more numerous rheem or sand gazelle (Gazella subgutterosa
marica), dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas) and Grant’s gazelle (Gazella
granti), an East African species.
Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), rescued only a few decades ago from
the brink of extinction, are protected within their own compound
which straddles a large section of the sloping plain beneath Jebel
Wahid. Here they are free to wander over several square kilometres
of natural landscape. The herd is steadily increasing in size
as a result of natural breeding within the enclosure. This quietly
undertaken effort, little known internationally, is testimony
to Sheikh Zayed’s deep seated concern for protection of Arabia’s
unique wildlife, so elegantly personified by the white oryx.
Also to be found wandering the open countryside, or held within
other large enclosures, on this exotic island reserve are blackbuck
(Antilope cervicapra), common eland (Taurotragus oryx), beisa
oryx (Oryx gazella beisa), scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah),
Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), addax (Addax nasomaculatus), defassa
waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus defassa), fallow deer (Dama dama),
axis deer (Axis axis), hog deer (Cervus porcinus), barbary sheep
(Amnotragus lervia), and wild sheep or Asiatic mouflon (Ovis ammon).
One experiment of wildlife management that visitors are not encouraged
to observe is a breeding pen for houbara (Chlamydotis undulata),
members of the bustard family. These birds need to be left strictly
alone if they are to to have any chance to breed successfully
under wild conditions, and a large area close to the coast has
been set aside just for that purpose. This island bird sanctuary
is only part of the many efforts by Sheikh Zayed, and his family
to revive the population of the houbara in the wild. At the National
Avian Research Centre (NARC) at Sweihan on the mainland, a highly
scientific approach is taken to captive breeding, while NARC scientists
are also studying the migration and breeding patterns of the houbara.
Sir Bani Yas’s other birds are also impressive inhabitants of
this Arabian ark. Whilst Arabia’s native sub-species of ostrich
(Struthio camelus syriacus) is sadly extinct, a captive population
of closely related African ostrich is now breeding on the island.
Meanwhile, successful breeding of two other flightless birds,
the rhea (Rhea americana) and the emu (Dromaius naavaehollandiae)
is raising the question of what to do with the rapidly increasing
flocks. Another introduced bird, but one which now breeds in the
wild on Sir Bani Yas, is the Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptius),
whose adults, with goslings in tow, can be seen alongside the
mangrove channel close to the main residential area. Other introductions
include the ground nesting grey francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus),
black francolin (Francolinus francolinus), see see (Ammoperdix
griseogularis) and chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar). Some other
free-flying species that have begun to breed include the African
crowned crane (Balearica regulorum), helmeted guineafowl (Numidia
meleagris), and possibly also the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus).
The success of Sir Bani Yas as a nature reserve is further underlined
by the number of wild bird species that made it a temporary or
permanent home. Details of sightings of around 170 species are
now kept in the files of the Emirates Bird Records Committee.
Among these, a popular favourite is the greater flamingo (Phoenocopterus
ruber), also known as the pink flamingo, which can be seen in
shallow intertidal lagoons, protected by mangrove bushes, or at
the artificial ‘bird lake’ where they can gather in dense flocks
of over a hundred individuals.
Sheikh Zayed’s success in creating a wildlife reserve has been
matched by the results of field trials in which the island has
been used as a testing ground for agriculture. One of the first
plants that he encouraged to grow on the island was a species
that has been much maligned elsewhere in the world, and which
has suffered greatly at the hands of developers, the humble mangrove
tree (Avicennia marina). For someone who knows the true value
of freshwater and the real dryness of the desert, a tree that
grows in sea-water creates a powerful impression. So powerful,
in fact, that Sheikh Zayed has had agricultural teams planting
new stands of these salt-tolerant bushes all along the coast of
Abu Dhabi for the past 20 or so years, both in areas where they
were previously present and in new areas, often along the edge
of reclaimed land. Not only has this practice formed new stretches
of coastal greenery, but it has also created important habitats
for many birds, insects, fish and marine invertebrates. Such efforts
are making new nursery grounds for commercial fish, as well as
aesthetically pleasing coastal features.
But the most visible achievements at Sir Bani Yas are on dry land
where hundreds of acres of old or reclaimed land have been planted
with millions of trees and shrubs. Whilst some of these are grown
to provide shade and comfort for wild animals, or simply to green
the landscape, some are part of food growing experiments that
aim to test new ideas and to find species that show the greatest
tolerance for Abu Dhabi’s hot arid climate.