• austriantimes.at
• romaniantimes.at
• salzburgtimes.at
• viennatimes.at

Today

• Croatian week in Darmstadt

© europics.at

18. 10. 12. - 16:00

• more Around the World news...
• RSS Feed Around the World

18. 10. 12. - 16:00

Jane Goodalls Ibis Shot By Poachers

Marija Andric

A rare female Ibis that was named after its patron the British conservationist Jane Goodall has been shot by poachers in Italy.

The Ibis has been extinct in Europe for 400 years but this year after a project spanning 10 years a team led by bird expert Dr Johannes Fritz had finally managed to reintroduce a colony.

The shot Northern Bald Ibis named GoJa after the initial letters of the name of its patron Jane Goodall became the first of its species to fly unaided over the Alps to northern Europe in 400 years ago after being given flying lessons from a microlight.

The species lived in Europe for 1.8 million years before they were wiped out by hunters four centuries ago, and conservationist Dr Fritz used the technique of imprinting by making sure he was the first thing the chicks of the rare Northern Bald Ibis saw when they hatched.

Using the trust that bond built up, he then persuaded the birds to follow him in his microlight between the birds summer and winter feeding grounds in Tuscany and the Austrian and German Alps.

This year he celebrated the fact that after a decade of work, the first of the birds - Goja - had finally made it back over the Alps under her own steam and then had raised a family before flying back over Italy - where she was shot.

The birds flight was tracked by a GPS system that was fitted to all the adult birds last year and was coupled with a campaign to educate hunters to avoid having the birds shot.

He said: "This year we had one bird fly up from Tuscany and six that flew back which were fitted with a tracking system - and of these three have been shot in Italy. Another juvenile bird that not fitted with a device has also gone missing and has probably been shot. That means a more than 50 per cent loss to poaching."

The team are no using the GPS devices on the remaining birds to locate them and trap them to prevent further losses to poachers.

The first bird to be shot was recovered alive but badly injured near Cecina, and will probably never fly again. The other two birds, Goja and a juvenile called Jedi, were shot 40 km further south near San Vincenzo.

The pair were being followed by conservationist Anne-Gabriela Schmalstieg who said: "I was with the birds on the night roost the day before. They slept at an electric line south of Venturina. At 07:30 they left from there to the West and I tried to follow. At 08:00 I got a position indicating that the birds were in flight. At 09:00 I got a further position which worried me. It was on the ground in a forest area, what is a quite unusual as they were supposed to be migrating and therefore should have been on the move."

She said when she arrived she had been threatened by two hunters and told to get off their land, but then later a third hunter had agreed to help her enter to look for the birds and she recovered Jedi heavily bleeding and trying to hide under a bush on the forest floor. A short while later she found the badly injured Goja also bleeding heavily.

She said: "I did what I could but Goja died in my arms. We have been with these birds since they were hatched, watched them grow and learn to fly and then return to the wild. I have lost a friend. And Goja was such a personality.

"Because of what she had achieved, like no other bird in our group she represented the hope that this birds can again live in Europe 400 years after extinction."

Johannes Fritz said: "We have always said illegal hunting is the major threat for our project. We do can track and follow the birds and are always no more than an hour from them but we cannot avoid poachers."

The Italian bird conservation organization LIPU and also the Italian hunting association Federcaccia have issued a statement condemning the incident.

But Dr Fritz is taking no chances and said: "For this season we will avoid further losses by catching all the birds which are still on the way. My hope is that we can make the migration journey safer in the near future, for the Ibis as a flagship species as well as for other endangered bird species."

Jane Goodall is not only a supporter of the project but also visited us for the first time in 2008 for a book project she was working on.

Croatia to take part in building two pipelines
Representatives of the Governments of Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina signed a memorandum highlighting their intention to construct two new pipelines - the Trans-Adriatic (Trans Adriatic Pipeline, TAP) and the Ionian-Adriatic (Ionian Adriatic Pipeline, IAP), the news agency RIA Novosti reports.

Anas Sharbini returns to Rijeka
Professional football forward Anas Sharbini has returned to Rijeka FC.

Dukat acquires more shares in Ljubljanske Mlekarne
Croatian dairy firm Dukat has bought another 46.23 percent of the Slovenian diary producer Ljubljanske Mlekarne.

Angry fans damage coffee shop of former Sibenik FC director
Football fans in the Croatian coastal town of Sibenik have expressed their anger following the relegation of the local football club into 3rd division.

Tony Blair is the new ambassador of Youth Sports Games
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has accepted to become the latest ambassador to the Youth Sports Games.

Unions urge for the privatisation of 3. maj shipyard
Unions of the 3. maj Shipyard in Rijeka have urged the Croatian government to speed up the privatisation and to agree new business deals.

Transport Minister sees future for Croatia Airlines
Croatian Transport Minister Sinisa Hajdas Doncic has revealed national airliner Croatia Airlines is going to survive.

Hajduk needed to open their stadium in the middle of the night to let fans celebrate the cup
Hajduk Split football club needed to open its Poljud Stadium at 4.30 AM when thousands of fans wanted to greet their team upon a return from Zagreb where they won the national football cup on Wednesday night.

Missing woman married Facebook friend
A woman reported missing by her friends for more than a month turned up safe after 44 days to tell them she'd run off with a man she'd met on Facebook.

Mayor saves a woman in Senj
The mayor of the western Croatian coastal town of Senj has spread a good image of his town in a direct way.