From the 30th November to the 21st December 2004 a team comprising 26 ornithologists, all of them SEO/Birdlife volunteers or staff, carried out altruistically a new Houbara census a decade after the last count, done by the team headed by Aurelio Martín (La Laguna University).
They used the same methodology as then although in this case we managed to have three teams working simultaneously on the censuses of the islands and islets of Fuerteventura and Lobos, Lanzarote and Chinijo (La Graciosa and Alegranza). The results can be considered surprising. They surpass the last known estimates by recording a mininum of 424 Houbaras during the multilinear transect walks. If we add the other 27 birds observed out of the transects and another 42 recorded during the evening counts in marginal sites, the resulting amount is a minimum of 493 Houbaras. This means a noticeable increase from the 379 count in 1994.
As this time there was a higher number of transects was, the differences remain -a minimum of 430 birds in 2004 compared to the 379 already mentioned - when taking into account only the sites included in both censuses. The same findings have become evident in relation with the above mentioned census as regards a higher number of Houbaras in Lanzarote Island (a minimum of 259) than in Fuerteventura Island (a minimum of 226). Also, some birds remain in La Graciosa (at least eight) while no bird was seen in Alegranza and Lobos islets.Using the same estimation protocol of a decade ago, in which the type of habitat and the nuclei in each island both play an important role, a first estimate obtained from the censuses during the proccess of analysis of the results is 802 Houbaras in the whole of the archipelago, 213 in marginal zones and the remaining 589 in those sites regarded as the best conserved, which are distributed among La Graciosa (14), Lanzarote (459) and Fuerteventura (329). Ten years ago the total number was 559 birds.
From the point of view of the species conservation, the results of the current census are extremely interesting.
To sum up, there are in general larger numbers of Houbaras, which is very positive, although the increase has been particularly noticeable in marginal zones. This is the source of the most concerning issue, as these areas enjoy from a lower level of protection and face more threats (electricity lines, roads, etc.). May it suffice to say that in the period elapsed bettween our stay in the eastern islands and today we have had notice of the death of at least four birds by collision with power lines and, in another case, against a fence. Another bird was run over by a vehicle. To this count approximately a dozen dead during 2004 must be added. It must also be taken into account that a few weeks before the counting several waves of locusts reached the eastern islands and that caused wide social alarm that demanded means to fight the plague. The controlled use, according to regional and local authorities, of
When taking into account the potential distribution area for the species, estimated in some 440 square kilometres, only 140 of them can be regarded as a primary habitat, which means a smaller extension than in the previous census (162,5 square kilometres). However, the marginal area (partially degraded zones, arable land, etc.), identified as a secondary habitat has clearly increased: from some 234 square kilometres according to the estimates of a decade ago to some 300,2 square kilometres. This increase seems to be the consequence of both a general degradation proccess of this species habitat (building, road making, etc.) and a larger occupation area. In this occasion the species has been detected in sites where it had not been known to be present before or it had not been seen in years.
potentially toxic substances carried a significant danger for the birds, specially because several species and the Houbara in particular fed on locusts during that period in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote islands.
It is surprising to find an aboundance of birds in environments that have been rapidly altered, as is the case with the Guatiza reserve and El Terminillo (in Lanzarote island) and, above all, with sites like Taca-Cotillo or the plain of Las Salinas in Fuerteventura. We must not forget, either, building developments as disgraceful as that in Cotillo sandy plain, in Fuerteventura too . How can these birds survive in such places? Is it a last effort before a steep decline as it has been the case with other species in insular environments? Or is, on the contrary, the Houbara not as seriously threatened as it is thought? The answer is likely to come from future counts, research and other actions planned as part of the LIFE project that SEO/BirdLife is carrying out after nearly a decade during which the Houbara Bustard and other birds living in the Canarian plains (like the Stone-curlew Burhinus oedicnemus , insularum subspecies , Cream-Coloured Courser Cursorius Cursor , bannermani subspecies cf. , Black-bellied Sandgrouse Pterocles orientalis , Cream-Coloured Courser Cursorius Cursor , polatzeki subspecies , Trumpeter Finch, Bucanetes githagineus, amantum subspecies , etc.) have been totally neglected from a conservation point of view.
