| Hunting with falcons for houbara bustards was an integral part of traditional life in the desert. Over the last few decades, this magnificent bird - so well adapted to the desert environment - has become an endangered species, due both to continued hunting and to the degradation of its habitat by domestic livestock. This book highlights the achievements of the National Wildlife Research Center of Saudi Arabia in securing the survival of the species through captive breeding, with the aim of reintroducing the houbara to the wild. The breeding program has proved to be the greatest source of information yet available on the bird, yielding important data not obtainable from wild houbaras. This is a practical how-to manual for breeding the bird in captivity. It also presents and summarizes the background data on houbara diet, behavior, physiology, reproductive biology and veterinary care that have enabled the breeding program to succeed in the short span of eight years. It will be of interest not only to breeders of houbara and other bustard species, but to all those who are studying or managing wild populations. |
