Family: Otididae (Bustards)

Authority: (Jacquin, 1784)

Red List Category

Criteria: A2cd+3cd+4cd

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Justification of Red List category
This species is suspected to be in rapid continuing decline and to have declined very rapidly in the past decade, owing mainly to hunting pressure and ongoing habitat loss and degradation. Although a captive breeding and release programme is ongoing in Morocco, evidence that these releases are mitigating the rate of the decline in the wild population is not apparent, nor is there evidence that these ongoing releases have resulted in an additional sustainable subpopulation. To the contrary, monitoring of the area that has received the most released birds over the longest period concludes that the population in a 50,000 km² area of eastern Morocco is not viable without ongoing releases, and must now be excluded from this assessment as a managed subpopulation. The loss of a population estimated to be around 3,400 individuals in 2001, at the start of the releases, is additional to a suspected rapid rate of ongoing reduction in the rest of the range, evidenced by range contraction and reduced densities. Hence the recent rate of population reduction is suspected to have been greater than the ongoing and future rates, and much improved monitoring to discern trends is needed. If further parts of the population are converted through releases to managed subpopulations then the recent rate of reduction will quickly increase and the species will qualify for a higher threat category. The causes of this reduction have not ceased.
Further research is needed to disentangle the impact of large-scale releases wherever these birds end up to determine the effect on the overall population demographics, and hence population viability. It has been stated that the large-scale releases prevented total extirpation from the monitored area in eastern Morocco: if that is true, logically wild populations may soon be extirpated from those areas not subject to such intensive conservation action. But equally, other areas that are subject to the level of intervention are expected to follow the same trajectory to becoming managed subpopulations requiring high inputs of captive-reared birds. Therefore the expansion of the conservation strategy to further areas must be subject to a careful evaluation of outcomes and full disclosure of projected population trajectory prior to the numbers of released birds exceeding the existing wild population. Precise data on known and projected mortality would be essential to informing the conservation in each 'block' of the population where large-scale releases to support the population are proposed: given the effort expended on conservation of this species it would seem a significant oversight if precise hunting take data are not available to assist with these assessments.
In conclusion, a rapid population reduction is continuing throughout the mainland range of African Houbara, which has been exacerbated to a degree by the change to a managed subpopulation of a small but significant proportion of the overall population. The species is accordingly assessed as Vulnerable. However, there is considerable uncertainty over the longer-term status of wild, unmanaged populations of African Houbara in mainland Africa. Were the conservation efforts that have been carried out in eastern Morocco applied across this range there is a considerable risk that the result would be the continued presence of the species, but not as a viable, wild population. Only the small population on the Canary Islands has not received individuals from releases of captive-reared individuals and requires continued protected and monitoring. There is an urgent need to assess the current wild occupancy, abundance and population trajectory across the historical range in light of this conclusion, and to fully assess the future impact of the release of captive-reared birds to prevent the loss of unmanaged wild populations. 

Population size: unknown

Population trend: decreasing

Extent of occurrence (breeding/resident): 3,440,000 km²

Country endemic: no

Attributes
AEMLAP