MOROCCO
The days are certainly numbered for the northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita), one of the world's rarest birds. Their numbers dropped sharply by 17 per cent when 38 of them were struck down by a mysterious disease. The bald ibis once occupied the grasslands of North Africa and the Middle East. Now they are found only in two breeding sites on cliffs in western Morocco. Two-thirds of these rare birds nest inside the Souss-Massa National Park, south of Agadir and the remaining population breed 100 km north of the park.
Recently, local fisherfolk employed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (rspb), uk, to keep a watch on the bald ibis, found some of the birds dead with symptoms of vomiting and haemorrhage. "To lose so many adults out of a population this small is very serious," said Chris Bowden, a biologist who studies the bald ibis for rspb. The birds died just after having their meal of beetles and lizards. Bowden believes the cause of the deaths could be a toxin rather than an infectious micro-organism. No proof of pathogenic bacteria was found after laboratory tests in Adagir.
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