A rare species of bird, the northern bald Ibis, which had been wiped out in Europe and reintroduced at great expense in Austria, is under threat as Italian hunters kill them during their migration south.
The birds were extinct in Germany and Austria for 400 years until a conservation project successfully reintroduced them at Lake Constance in Baden-Wurttemberg, Burghausen in Bavaria, and locations in Austria.
The project used trained handlers in motorised paragliders to guide the birds over the Alps, helping them rediscover their migratory instincts.
In recent years, these efforts led to the first self-sustaining populations of the species migrating independently to southern destinations such as Tuscany in Italy and Andalusia in Spain.
Dr Johannes Fritz, head of the Waldrapp project, stated: “This project is the world’s first successful reintroduction of a migratory bird species.”
Despite these successes, conservationists have expressed heartbreak over the continued poaching of these endangered birds.
The conservation team revealed that during the autumn migration alone, eight northern bald Ibises were illegally shot in Italy.
One such bird, a three-year-old named Puck, was killed in November in the Apennines.
A GPS tracker on Puck’s back indicated where the bird had been shot, allowing Italian police to identify a suspect, a hunter affiliated with an Italian hunting association.
During a house search, authorities reportedly confiscated the hunter’s weapon and licence.
Roberta Peroni, representing the European LIFE-Nature project supporting the conservation efforts, explained: “The hunter is being charged with killing a protected species and causing significant harm to an endangered population.”
The LIFE project also plans to pursue damages in civil court.
Dr Fritz highlighted the broader impact of such crimes, noting that nearly one-third of bald Ibis deaths in Italy result from poaching.
He added: “This environmental crime also endangers many other protected migratory bird species.”
The northern bald Ibis, identifiable by its bald head and distinctive curved beak, was driven to the brink of extinction by illegal hunting in the 17th century.
The species’ status has improved from ‘critically endangered’ to ‘endangered’ on the IUCN Red List, thanks to conservation efforts like the Waldrapp project.
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