Two losses this year but experts optimistic about great Indian bustard rewilding initiative

In what is being considered a milestone for Project Great Indian Bustard, four captive-bred great Indian bustards (GIBs) were released into the wild in early October at the Desert National Park in Rajasthan. On October 17, one of the four birds was found dead, apparently predated upon by a desert fox the day before.

The authorities, however, do not consider the loss a setback. Sutirtha Dutta, a lead scientist with the Wildlife Institute of India, informs Mongabay-India that mortality due to predation and starvation, as well as threats posed by existing infrastructure, is expected during rewilding.

Earlier this year, a GIB chick hatched in the wild in Kutch, Gujarat, in March after a fertilised egg was transported from the conservation breeding centre at Sam in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer. It then went missing in April and could not be traced despite searches by forest officials.

The egg had been transported as part of the Jumpstart Approach, an attempt to restore a breeding population of GIBs in Gujarat, another former range state of the bird. The approach uses eggs from Rajasthan’s captive-breeding programme and gets wild female bustards in Gujarat to incubate and rear the chicks.

Forest department officials suspected that the chick had been predated upon, although no remains were recovered. Its disappearance prompted the state government to strengthen habitat protection, fencing and predator-management measures.

Success rate is variable in rewilding

“Typically in bustard breeding and release programmes, the survival rates of captive bred and released bustards is 30% at best,” Dutta says, adding: “Even if we are able to release 30 birds in a year, and 10 of them survive and get recruited in the (wild) population, that is a big addition to the current population of about 40 individuals in Desert National Park.” Dutta shares that in the wild, mortality can happen at the egg or young chick stage. “A bustard egg in the wild has only an 18% chance of surviving.”

Captive breeding was intended to address some of these early-life survival challenges. The project began with the establishment of a founder population of 40 birds at two conservation breeding centres – Sam and Ramdevra in Jaisalmer. The founder population was established by collecting eggs from the wild and rearing the chicks in captivity.

With close to 100 birds in the captive-breeding programme, the project was ready to move to the next phase, rewilding, in about seven to eight years, much earlier than the original 15-year target, says Dutta.

“International bustard conservation-breeding programmes generally report survival rates of around 48%, whereas ours has recorded a survival rate of 80%. This enabled us to bring forward the rewilding timeline to eight years,” he shares.

Critics question lack of transparency

Despite these milestones, the project has faced criticism over its preparedness and lack of transparency.

“It’s the world’s first experiment breeding the great Indian bustard species. Both successes and failures need to be discussed as part of the learning process,” says wildlife biologist Sumit Dookia, an associate professor at the University School of Environment Management, GGS Indraprastha University, New Delhi. The authorities have shared very little information with the public about the programme, he says. “This is a Government of India project, a programme of national importance involving several stakeholders. Yet there is very little transparency about what is happening on the ground.”

Dookia also questions the circumstances surrounding the predation incident and the safeguards in place for the released birds. “One account says that the predation took place inside Desert National Park. If it happened inside one of the predator-proof enclosures in the Park, then how did a desert fox enter it? There are a wide range of birds of prey, resident as well as migratory; if predation risk from natural predators is not being learnt by these released birds, then it will be a consistent problem of risk. So, what safeguards are in place for rewilding birds in this landscape? How are they ensuring the safety of the released birds while also managing the programme without disturbing the wider ecosystem?”

He also raises concerns about the management of predators in the Desert National Park’s enclosed landscape, following reports of a proposal to destroy fox dens and relocate desert foxes after the chick’s death. He suggested that such actions shouldn’t be taken outside the enclosed areas of the Park as desert foxes are an integral part of the desert ecosystem. The desert fox is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Dutta, however, says that large-scale removal of foxes was never considered in response to the predation incident. He says the strategic translocation of foxes from two GIB breeding enclosures, covering a combined area of 20 sq. km. within the approximately 3,100 sq km park landscape, is an ongoing conservation practice intended to improve the hatching success of wild GIB eggs.

“Almost 50% of wild GIB eggs get predated, mostly by foxes whose numbers are very high inside these breeding enclosures. This is a scientifically-informed practice that has also been directed by the Supreme Court and is inconsequential to the predator populations as it targets only less than 1% of the Park area,” he says.

On the release of the remaining captive-bred birds, Dutta says they are expected to be released in November and December, as not all have reached the age of five to six months, considered suitable for release. Although six more birds are expected to be released, he says the final number will depend “on their conditions (behavioural, health and fitness) at that time”.

This article was first published on Mongabay.

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• Great Indian Bustard
• Rajasthan
• Wildlife Conservation
• Grasslands