Yahoo – AFP,
2 Feb 2015
Quetta
(Pakistan) (AFP) - Pakistani authorities are finalising arrangements for a
Saudi prince to visit its southwestern desert region to hunt the Houbara
bustard, a bird supposedly protected by law, officials said Monday.
An advance
party has already been reached the Yak Much desert in the province of Baluchistan
along with falcons which will be used to catch the bustard, officials said.
Saudi
Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz is expected to join the group in coming
days. He led a hunting party to Baluchistan last year that officials said
killed more than 2,000 bustards.
The birds
are listed as "vulnerable" and declining in numbers by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature's "Red List" of
threatened species. Hunting them is banned in Pakistan.
But
authorities issue special permits to wealthy visitors from Arab countries.
Permit holders are in theory restricted to hunting a maximum of 100 of the
protected birds over 10 days, but only in certain areas.
A Houbara
bustard flies during a falconry competition -- part of the 2014
International
Festival of Falconry -- in Hameem, 150km west of Abu Dhabi,
on December 9, 2014
(AFP Photo/Karim Sahib)
|
Saifullah
Zehri, district forest officer for wildlife in Chagai district of which Yak Much
is a part, told AFP the advance party arrived on Sunday in a C-130 transport
plane.
"They
were fully equipped and had all the material which is required for bird
hunting," Zehri said.
Arab
sheikhs are known as enthusiastic hunters, travelling to Pakistan each year to
hunt the bird using the traditional Arabian method. They arrive by private jets
from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
According
to conservative estimates, between 500,000 and a million birds of all species
migrate through Pakistan each year -- flying south from Siberia to pass the
winter in Central and South Asia.
Hunt: Fahd
bin Sultan is said to have killed
1,977
houbara bustards in just 21 days while
on holiday
|
Related Articles:
Bustard act: Saudi prince accused of slaying 2,000 near-extinct birds while on safari in Pakistan (April 24, 2014)
Spain's
King Juan Carlos poses in front of a dead elephant
on a
hunting trip in Botswana, Africa. Photograph: Target
Press/Barcroft Media
|
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