Successful migration of released captive-bred Asian Houbara

What is it about?

Asian Houbara are declining due to unregulated hunting and trade, while captive-breeding is used at increasingly large scales in an attempt to reinforce and support wild populations. Here, we compare the migration performance of released captive-bred birds to that of adult and juvenile (first-winter) wild counterparts. Captive-bred birds initiated autumn migration an average of 20.6 (4.6 se) days later and wintered 470.8 km (76.4 se) closer to the breeding grounds, mainly in Turkmenistan, northern Iran and Afghanistan, than wild birds, which migrated 1217.8 km (76.4 se), predominantly wintering in southern Iran and Pakistan (juveniles and adults were similar). The migratory performance of captive-bred birds was otherwise similar to that of wild juveniles. Although the long-term fitness consequences for captivebred birds establishing wintering sites at the northern edge of those occupied by wild birds remain to be quantified, the pattern of wild migrations established by long-term selection was not fully replicated.

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Why is it important?

Conservation of the Asian Houbara requires regulation of hunting and control of poaching in an integrated strategy, and cannot be achieved solely through captive-breeding.

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