RIYADH — A scientific team of Saudi Wildlife Commission concluded recently a field visit to Kazakhstan to follow up the migration of Houbara Bustards and to conduct environmental studies on the birds, which spend autumn and winter in the north of the Kingdom and spring and summer in the south of Kazakhstan. The three-year program, which started in 2011, shows that the birds migrate from the north of the Kingdom through Iraq, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan and settle in the south of Kazakhstan, traveling every year more than 6,000 kms back and forth. Prince Bandar Bin Saud Bin Mohammed, chairman of the Saudi Wildlife Commission, said his organization seeks in the future to expand a program of increasing and resettling Houbara Bustards in suitable reserves in the Kingdom and to continue scientific studies that support this rare species. — SG
