Kuwait poachers kill rare sociable lapwings

This is called Sociable Lapwing Tracking – RSPB Video.

Critically Endangered birds needlessly shot in Kuwait

Sociable lapwings targeted by hunters in Kuwait

March 2013. Sociable lapwings are declining due to low adult survival, which is almost certainly caused by being shot during migration. There is evidence from known stopover sites in north-eastern Syria and some areas in Iraq from 2008 and 2009 that these birds are widely hunted by both locals and visiting falconers from the Gulf States.

The latest reports from the region are the first to confirm the killing of sociable lapwings in Kuwait. The birds appear to have been shot on 12th March. Tim Stowe, the RSPB’s Director of International Operations says: “Regrettably, this is the first confirmed hunting of sociable lapwings in Kuwait, and this latest information is of particular concern as these birds were returning to Kazakhstan where they would have started breed in 6 weeks time.”

In May 2012, the revision of the 2002 Action Plan was adopted by the 5th Meeting of the Parties to Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) in La Rochelle, France. This identified the urgent need for action across sociable lapwing range states to implement and enforce effective hunting legislation.

Sergey Dereliev, AEWA Technical Officer states: “Although Kuwait is not yet a Contracting Party to AEWA, the Government has expressed its interest in the objectives of the Agreement through attendance at the meeting in La Rochelle, and it could play a significant role in the Gulf region in helping to halt the decline of this Critically Endangered species by implementing and enforcing hunting legislation. By improving adult survival by 30% we could see a stabilization of the current population size on the way to a future increasing population trend.”

The RSPB has been supporting work on the Critically Endangered sociable lapwing since 2005, and from 2011 has been acting as Co-ordinator for the implementation of the International Single Species Action Plan for the species under a Memorandum of Cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Secretariat of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA).

Courtesy of Birdlife.