Scientists help rare bird species fly through oceans through a human-led migration

Several birds and animals have been driven to extinction because of various factors. Human interference is one of those reasons. But in this specific case, humans are intervening to save a bird from extinction by helping them migrate. In an expedition, scientists from Austria will help northern bald ibises migrate to Spain by flying with them in an ultra-light aircraft, as per My Modern Met. The two scientists will help 36 human-raised birds migrate on a journey spanning 1,740 miles and 50 days. The duo, Helena Wehner and Barbara Steininger are also the foster parents of the birds.

"Flying with hand-raised birds is like being invited to another world, the bird world. Most fascinating is the social interaction between us foster moms and the birds up in the air, when we greet them, and they slightly turn their head and then greet back to us," Helena Wehner told the outlet. The bird, also known as Waldrapp, originally lived in North Africa, parts of Europe and the Arabian Peninsula. But they gradually disappeared from Central Europe. However, the Waldrapp Team has made consistent efforts to bring the bird's status from critically endangered to endangered. Although efforts made for their conversation brought up the birds' numbers to 300, the birds struggled without wild ancestors to teach them how to migrate and died.

Until a biologist from the team, Johannes Fritz decided to try a human-led migration inspired by the work of “Father Goose” Bill Lishman, the man who led migrations of Canadian geese in the 1980s. The initiative had also inspired a film called "Fly Away Home." The biologist explained, "Flying with the birds requires permanent concentration to avoid losing birds but also to avoid dangerous collisions… The birds regularly form a formation to save energy, and we are often in the front … This is a really fantastic view." Fritz pilots the aircraft that carries the team members most of the time and describes the process as a "wonderful experience." 

"I really felt like, ok, the whole family is in flight, all of us are in the air. The birds are ready, and we are ready," Steininger told BBC, as she got ready to fly with the flock of bald ibises for the first time. But because of warmer autumns, the ibises have started to migrate later and later in the year, hence finding the frozen Alps in their path, as per the outlet. "We've just saved the bald ibis, and now it's threatened with extinction by climate change. The birds are stuck north of the Alps," Fritz pointed out. So, to avoid the frozen Alps, the team has decided to show the birds a route through the Pyrenees and to Spain.

In one of the posts from the Instagram account of @waldrappteam, the caption read, "We just completed the first stage of the flight to Spain, and the team is excited but exhausted after the first day. We flew 141km and it took the plane around 3:01 hours and landed in Paterzell. Our average speed was 48km/because we had supporting winds, maximum speed was 63km/h. After arrival, the team encountered some storms but luckily, we were able to grab our tents before they flew away." As per the latest post, the team is about to reach the Spanish inland and has already completed around 40 days of their 50-day journey.