One winter afternoon in 1999, Johannes Fritz (57), an Austrian biologist, sat down at home to watch a movie on the couch. selected Fly home (fly freelyin Spain), which chronicles the journey of an inventor and his daughter in a small plane to guide orphaned geese born in the backyard of their farm, from Canada to the United States.
At the end of the film, Fritz, then a doctoral student in biology, stood for several minutes staring at the black television screen. The film, with its fictional but plausible story, had the solution to the conservation project he was working on: the reintroduction of the hermit ibis, a species very common in the Near East, North Africa and southern and central Europe, extinct for centuries in this part of the map due to hunting.
Their research had shown that birds raised in zoos retained their migratory instinct, but did not know which direction to take in search of a hibernation area with the arrival of winter. When they grew up and were freed, they died trying to find warmer places to settle.
Inspired by this film, the biologist studied for years a feasibility project to accompany chicks born in captivity from Austria to Italy – an ideal country because of its climate – aboard an ultralight plane so that they can survive on their forgotten migratory route.
In 2002, Fritz and his team made their first pilot trip. It worked. With funds from the European Union they created the Waldrappteam project (the ibis eremita is also known as Waldrapp), a journey between birds and humans that aims to release these specimens into the wild so that they can once again have a large colony in Europe.
This week, 36 hermit ibises arrived in Medina Sidonia (Cádiz) after a 50-day, 2,500-kilometer journey that began in Austria, continued through Germany and France until reaching Andalusia, the new final destination to release them.
Until 2022, the route ended in the Italian region of Tuscany. But climate change has forced us to chart a new course. The birds, explains Lisa Weber, leader of the expedition with a team of 15 people, find it increasingly difficult to fly over the cold barrier of the Alps in autumn due to a migration that takes place a little later each season .
Spain now appears to be “the most suitable wintering area” for the mission. One of the birds that migrated in 2022 got lost and took a solitary journey to Malaga. Her GPS helped locate her. During this trip, only five specimens managed to cross the Alps due to the very low temperatures. Fritz then decides to change route.
In October last year, a first group arrived. This Wednesday, a second trip was made. Hermit ibises had not migrated to the peninsula since the Middle Ages, when they became extinct throughout Europe. They were coveted as a delicacy, which is why they were hunted and hunted, including their young.
These 36 specimens were born in April at Rosegg Zoo in Austria. They were removed from their nests and taken to an aviary where they were entrusted to two adoptive mothers, two young scientists, Helena Wehner and Bárbara Steininger, responsible for the “imprinting” process: 15 hours of daily and exclusive contact to generate a “parental imprint,” explains Weber, also a biologist. A strong “social bond and trust” is the fundamental condition for the birds to be able to reliably follow the two adoptive mothers in the ultralight aircraft throughout the journey.
We feed them, we clean them, we pamper them; We take good care of them from their first days of life and act like mother birds to establish a bond of absolute trust. It’s a wonderful experience
Barbara Steininger
— Biologist and adoptive mother of the reintroduced hermit ibis
At seven weeks, the mothers, always dressed in yellow to be recognized by birds in the distance, carried out their first flight training. Thanks to this intense bond, the chicks quickly got used to the plane, the noise of the engine and the ship’s large parachute.
“We feed them, we clean them, we pamper them; We take good care of them from their first days of life and act like mother birds to establish a bond of absolute trust. “It’s a wonderful experience,” Steininger says.
In August, as the ibises prepare to migrate and leave the breeding grounds, the expedition is launched. Fritz piloted the microlight at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour. One of the adoptive mothers was always by his side. The birds, lined up, flew in synchronization next to the plane.
The sections did not exceed 200 kilometers. When the ship landed, the birds were placed in a large cage that the team assembled and dismantled at each stop until the next takeoff.
“The foster mothers open the cages and take the birds out to continue the journey. One of them gets into the microlight with the pilot and the other follows the plane on the ground in a van,” describes Weber. “It’s an exhausting but very exciting journey,” he adds once the new mission is completed.
From now on, once they arrive in Cádiz, the hermit ibises will stay in another aviary for three weeks. They will be separated from the foster mothers’ intensive care so they can get used to the new environment.
Then liberation comes. The birds immediately seek contact with their wild counterparts and integrate into their colonies. In Andalusia, a reintroduction project launched in 2003 (the Eremita Project of the Zoobotánico de Jerez) allowed the proliferation of a population of almost a hundred specimens.
In the third year, when the birds reach sexual maturity, they return to their breeding grounds in the spring to give birth. Several of them have already returned to Austria from Italy without human help. According to Weber, the first released generations reproduced in the wild and taught their offspring the migratory route they learned from humans.
From zero to 300
The Central European hermit ibis population has grown from zero to almost 300 individuals since the project began. Fritz’s estimate is that when that number reaches 350, no more travel will be necessary. The project will be completed.
“There are very few left. We have concluded a new journey with our goal of reintroducing this endangered migratory bird species to Europe. “We are delighted to have arrived in Spain and to see these young northern ibises flourishing in their new home,” rejoices the biologist.
The success of the project, he adds, can “pave the way for other endangered migratory species”. “This method that we developed with the eremita ibis species can be replicated for a growing number of other migratory bird species. “We showed it was possible,” he says proudly.
For Wehner and Steininger, returning home without the birds, without their “children” whom they cared for for eight months, involves a bit of mourning. It reassures them to know that at some point, they will see each other again. Hermit ibises recognize their adoptive mothers years after separation.
