Mrudul Godbole
28-02-2011, 11:34 PM
WILDLIFE: SWIFTLETS
No More In A Soup
A surrogacy plan for swiftlets may save them
DEBARSHI DASGUPTA
Swiftlets, small birds found in South Asia, the Pacific islands and Australia, have long been the target of poachers who traffic their nests to China and also parts of southeast Asia, where they are considered a delicacy. Now, an ambitious government programme is trying to amend matters through an interventionist idea: controlled harvesting of nests by locals. Will it actually help conservation? Preliminary reports from the field in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, where such an experiment has been under way, indicate the initiative may indeed work: the population of Aerodramus fuciphagus, a species of swiftlet found only on these islands, has gone up 30 per cent in the target areas. The results have been submitted for publication in a scientific journal.
Excessive harvesting of nests by poachers has brought down their number drastically: it plumetted by as much as 80 per cent from a recorded 7,432 birds in 1997. This is because poachers pull out nests even before chicks are born. After Satish Pande and other ornithologists raised an alarm in 2002, all species of edible-nest swiftlets seen in India were put on the Schedule 1 list, which includes some of the most endangered species in the country, like the tiger. However, in 2009, after wildlife experts put forth the unique conservation plan, the Union ministry of environment and forests “delisted” the Aerodramus fuciphagus species for three years. This was the first time the government allowed the controlled harvesting of a wildlife product to see if the process might help conserve a species. Scientists from the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) in Coimbatore started this programme in conjunction with the forest department of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Swiftlets make their nests in dank caves, using saliva that hardens with time. The nests are built around December, eggs laid around February-March. After the first batch of eggs hatch and the chicks raised, the birds reuse the nest for the second breeding season, in monsoon. However, that is when water seeps into the limestone walls, loosening the grip of the nests and causing them to fall. What conservationists have done is intervene before the nests fall and remove them, along with the eggs, from the caves. The eggs are then kept in specially constructed conservation houses. Another species of swiftlet, the Glossy Swiftlet, found across the islands and not a protected species, is attracted to these—and builds nests using twigs and branches. The eggs of the Aerodramus are placed there. Glossy swiftlets then act as surrogate parents, hatching the eggs and looking after the chicks.
“We have recorded no hostile behaviour of the Glossy Swiftlet towards the Aerodramus species,” says Manchi Shirish S., a scientist with SACON. “On the contrary, the survival rate of the second batch of chicks is more than 90 per cent in our conservation houses. Whereas, in natural conditions, it is about 60 per cent. This is what even trials in Indonesia have shown.” The edible nests collected in 2010 are in the custody of the forest department in the islands and a mechanism to sell them will be worked out later, if at all—and any revenue will be distributed among locals. SACON’s conservation programme involves locals who serve as guards to protect the caves. However, Manchi points out that it is entirely possible that illegal harvesting of these nests is still going on in unprotected caves. SACON’s conservation programme now covers 201 of the approximately 290 caves that are inhabited by the protected swiftlets on the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Link - http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?270627
No More In A Soup
A surrogacy plan for swiftlets may save them
DEBARSHI DASGUPTA
Swiftlets, small birds found in South Asia, the Pacific islands and Australia, have long been the target of poachers who traffic their nests to China and also parts of southeast Asia, where they are considered a delicacy. Now, an ambitious government programme is trying to amend matters through an interventionist idea: controlled harvesting of nests by locals. Will it actually help conservation? Preliminary reports from the field in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, where such an experiment has been under way, indicate the initiative may indeed work: the population of Aerodramus fuciphagus, a species of swiftlet found only on these islands, has gone up 30 per cent in the target areas. The results have been submitted for publication in a scientific journal.
Excessive harvesting of nests by poachers has brought down their number drastically: it plumetted by as much as 80 per cent from a recorded 7,432 birds in 1997. This is because poachers pull out nests even before chicks are born. After Satish Pande and other ornithologists raised an alarm in 2002, all species of edible-nest swiftlets seen in India were put on the Schedule 1 list, which includes some of the most endangered species in the country, like the tiger. However, in 2009, after wildlife experts put forth the unique conservation plan, the Union ministry of environment and forests “delisted” the Aerodramus fuciphagus species for three years. This was the first time the government allowed the controlled harvesting of a wildlife product to see if the process might help conserve a species. Scientists from the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) in Coimbatore started this programme in conjunction with the forest department of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Swiftlets make their nests in dank caves, using saliva that hardens with time. The nests are built around December, eggs laid around February-March. After the first batch of eggs hatch and the chicks raised, the birds reuse the nest for the second breeding season, in monsoon. However, that is when water seeps into the limestone walls, loosening the grip of the nests and causing them to fall. What conservationists have done is intervene before the nests fall and remove them, along with the eggs, from the caves. The eggs are then kept in specially constructed conservation houses. Another species of swiftlet, the Glossy Swiftlet, found across the islands and not a protected species, is attracted to these—and builds nests using twigs and branches. The eggs of the Aerodramus are placed there. Glossy swiftlets then act as surrogate parents, hatching the eggs and looking after the chicks.
“We have recorded no hostile behaviour of the Glossy Swiftlet towards the Aerodramus species,” says Manchi Shirish S., a scientist with SACON. “On the contrary, the survival rate of the second batch of chicks is more than 90 per cent in our conservation houses. Whereas, in natural conditions, it is about 60 per cent. This is what even trials in Indonesia have shown.” The edible nests collected in 2010 are in the custody of the forest department in the islands and a mechanism to sell them will be worked out later, if at all—and any revenue will be distributed among locals. SACON’s conservation programme involves locals who serve as guards to protect the caves. However, Manchi points out that it is entirely possible that illegal harvesting of these nests is still going on in unprotected caves. SACON’s conservation programme now covers 201 of the approximately 290 caves that are inhabited by the protected swiftlets on the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Link - http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?270627