The sky’s the limit
A flock of northern bald ibis flies over Italy’s rugged Tuscan Hills. Once widely distributed across the Middle East, northern Africa and central and southern Europe, the species has had a turbulent history, eradicated in Europe in the Middle Ages and driven to the brink of extinction elsewhere during the last century, largely due to hunting and habitat loss. By the late 1990s, just one wild population survived, on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. However, thanks to two remarkable conservation efforts – the Waldrappteam Project in Austria and the Eremita Project in Spain – this charismatic bird is making a comeback in Europe.
Aiming high
The Waldrappteam Project is based at Vienna’s) and Katharina Huchler – hand-rear the birds and, using a microlight aircraft, teach them how to migrate, leading the flock vast distances over the Alps to wintering grounds in Orbetello, Tuscany.
