Zoology in the Middle East
ISSN: 0939-7140 (Print) 2326-2680 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tzme20
Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus): Important wintering sites and breeding records in the United Arab Emirates Shahid B. Khan, Salim Javed, Shakeel Ahmed, Junid N. Shah, Abdulla Ali Al Hammadi & Eissa Ali Al Hammadi To cite this article: Shahid B. Khan, Salim Javed, Shakeel Ahmed, Junid N. Shah, Abdulla Ali Al Hammadi & Eissa Ali Al Hammadi (2017): Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus): Important wintering sites and breeding records in the United Arab Emirates, Zoology in the Middle East, DOI: 10.1080/09397140.2017.1331586 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09397140.2017.1331586
Published online: 25 May 2017.
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Date: 28 May 2017, At: 00:24
Zoology in the Middle East, 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09397140.2017.1331586
Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus): Important wintering sites and breeding records in the United Arab Emirates Shahid B. Khana*, Salim Javeda, Shakeel Ahmeda, Junid N. Shahb, Abdulla Ali Al Hammadia and Eissa Ali Al Hammadia a
Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity Sector, Environment Agency- Abu Dhabi (EAD), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; bEnvironment Department, Dubai Municipality, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Received 25 April 2017; accepted 11 May 2017)
Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) monitoring was undertaken in the United Arab Emirates from 2003 to 2015 at 36 permanent sites to find key wintering and breeding sites. Bul Syayeef Marine Protected Area with monthly mean of 6553 (±3594) flamingos followed by Al Wathba Wetland Reserve with 1228 (±1190) flamingos topped the list. In addition, Shahama Wetland and Al Aryam Mudflats in Abu Dhabi Emirate form a complex of four nearby sites that hold the majority of nearly 15,000–20,000 birds wintering in the country. Lagoons (Khors) in the northern emirates are the other key wintering sites, that suffer habitat destruction and high disturbance. Breeding has been sporadic and infrequent since the first breeding attempt in 1993. Greater Flamingos have bred successfully only in the Abu Dhabi Emirate on 10 occasions at three sites with the highest eight breeding attempts at Al Wathba and one each at Shahama and Bul Syayeef. A total of 1,972 young have fledged with a high overall breeding success of 43%. The highest number of 801 young fledged at Bul Syayeef in 2009 followed by 420 at Al Wathba in 2015 and 350 at Shahama in 2007. Successful breeding occurred both in summer and winter seasons, breeding attempts were more (58%) in summer compared to winter. Flamingos have bred regularly at Al Wathba Wetland Reserve since 2011, this was made possible due to the provision of an artificial island to aid nesting and better control of predators. Breeding is successful at sites that maintain higher bird numbers and are free from disturbance. Keywords: Greater Flamingo; UAE; key sites; breeding; Al Wathba Wetland Reserve
Introduction The Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is a winter visitor to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (Aspinall & Porter, 2011) recorded at coastal and inland wetland sites (Javed, 2008; Aspinall, Javed, Eriksen & Eriksen, 2011). Birds congregate in large numbers at disturbance free inland wetlands, tidal mudflats and lagoons (Ahmed, Shah, Khan, Hammadi, Hammadi, & Javed, 2010; EAD, 2011). Some flamingos over winter and are seen at a few sites throughout the year (Richardson, 2003; Ahmed et al., 2010; Javed, 2016). The Greater Flamingo is not a regular breeding species in the Arabian Peninsula (Jennings, 2010). In the UAE, breeding has been recorded only in Abu Dhabi Emirate. The first breeding attempt was recorded at Al Wathba Wetland Reserve (AWWR) in 1993 (Aspinall & Hirschfeld, 1993; Aspinall & Hellyer, 1999) where breeding has been
*Corresponding author. Email:
[email protected] © 2017 Taylor & Francis
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regular since 2011 (Khan, Javed, Ahmed, Shah, Hammadi, & Hammadi, 2012; Khan, Javed, Ahmed & Shah, 2013, 2014, 2015). Year round monthly field surveys were undertaken throughout UAE from 2003 to 2015 in order to identify key wintering and breeding sites. We have listed the most important wintering area and have also summarised all flamingo breeding events in UAE and discuss our results in relation to the status and importance of these sites for the Greater Flamingo. Study Area and Methods Wintering. A total of 36 sites were surveyed throughout the UAE, these included coastal areas (17), lagoons/ mudflats (12) and inland wetland sites (7). Majority of these sites (61%) were in Abu Dhabi Emirate while the rest (39%) were in other emirates which are collectively known as Northern Emirates (Figure 1). Between 2003 and 2013, monthly monitoring was undertaken at these permanently identified sites throughout the UAE in order to record the flamingos and any possible breeding activity. Most of the sites were reached and surveyed by cars using binoculars and telescopes in order to cover large areas. From 2013 to 2015, sites in Abu Dhabi Emirate only were monitored regularly. Breeding. For breeding events prior to 2003, published literature was used to collect information. At breeding colonies, number of mounds made, number of incubating and number of chicks fledged were recorded. Percent hatching success was calculated by dividing number of chicks hatched per 100 mounds with each mound associated with a pair (Cézilly, Boy, Green, Hirons, Johnson, 1995; Johnson & Cézilly, 2007), assuming that each mound had an egg in it. [(number of chicks hatched/ number of mounds) x 100]. In case of simultaneously breeding sub-colonies at a site, the numbers of mounds at the colony where breeding was successful and young fledged were considered for analysis. To investigate any seasonal differences in breeding, October to March were considered as winter when temperatures are low and winter migrants are present while April to September were considered as summer. Summer months are very hot when temperatures can reach up to 50ºC. Monthly mean numbers (±SD) were used to list key wintering sites in UAE. We performed Pearson’s Correlation to find relationship between nest mounds and numbers of chicks hatched, we also evaluated the effect of seasons on the number of nest mounds made and on the number of chicks hatched using Mann-Whitney U test. All statistical analysis was performed using SYSTAT 10 (SYSTAT 2000).
Results Key wintering sites. Based on the monthly cumulative number of birds recorded from all the sites, 15,000 to 20,000 Greater Flamingos winter in the UAE. Bul Syayeef Marine Protected Area had the highest number of 6,553 (±3,594) flamingo recorded every month; it also had the nearly 19,000 flamingos in April 2009, this is the highest number of Greater Flamingo recorded at any site in the Arabian Peninsula. This is followed by Al Wathba Wetland Reserve (AWWR) having 1,228 (±1,190) flamingo every month; a highest of 4,762 birds has been recorded at this site, which is the highest for any inland wetland in the region. The ten key flamingo sites in UAE are listed in Table 1. The four close-by sites of Bul Syayeef, AWWR, Al Aryam Mudflats and Shahama Wetland (also known as Bin Butti lake) hold the bulk of wintering flamingos in the country (Figure 1). These also retain most of the over-wintering birds resulting in higher mean monthly numbers. Overall, 50% of these important sites are in Abu Dhabi Emirate. Also, habitat wise, 50% of these sites are lagoons (Khors), 30% are inter-tidal coastal mudflats and 20% are inland wetlands that are not far from the coast. Out of these ten sites, 60% are
Bul Syayeef
Al Wathba (AWWR) Al Aryam
Shahama Wetland
Ras Al Khor
Gerain Al Aish
Khor Al Beidah
Khor Al Jazeera
Khor Al Khawar
Khor Al Zowrah
1
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
3
Site name
Site No
105.9
113.0
128.3
287.7
395.2
774.9
775.2
891.6
1228.9
6553.9
Mean no.
138.4
92.7
84.8
251.5
263.3
498.9
480.5
1107.7
1190.5
3594.6
SD
612
377
460
1141
1085
2447
2183
5000
4762
18855
Max. no.
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No*
Yes
Yes
Breeding
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Protection status Yes
High
High
High
High
Low
Medium
Low
Low
Low
Low
Level of disturbance
Table 1. Ten most important Greater Flamingo conservation sites in the UAE and their conservation status.
Inter-tidal mudflats Inland Wetland Inter-tidal mudflats Inland Wetland Lagoon mudflats Inter-tidal mudflats Lagoon mudflats Lagoon mudflats Lagoon mudflats Lagoon mudflats
Habitat type
06
10
10
100
Umm Al Qaiwain Ras Al Khaimah Ras Al Khaimah Ajman
Abu Dhabi
Dubai
13 80
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Emirate
1.5
10
05
327
Area (sq km)
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Figure 1. Greater Flamingo survey sites in United Arab Emirates showing the important sites (mean number of birds ≥100), encircled area shows the location of breeding areas.
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Table 2. Summary of Greater Flamingo breeding events in the United Arab Emirates. AWWR = Al Wathba Wetland Reserve. Year
Location
Season
1993 1998 1998-99 2007 2009 2010 2011 2012 2012-13 2013 2014 2015
AWWR AWWR AWWR Shahama Bul Syayeef AWWR AWWR AWWR AWWR AWWR AWWR AWWR
Summer Summer Winter Winter Winter Winter Summer Summer Winter Summer Summer Summer
Egg laying Jun May Dec Feb Feb Mar May May Nov May Apr Apr
No. of chicks fledged 4 Nil 10 Approx. 350 801 Nil 18 17 41 201 110 420
No. of nest mounds 79 18 89 350 1954 12 187 151 112 369 559 704
Hatching success (%) 5 0 11 100 40 0 10 11 36 54 19 60
protected while 40% lack any kind of protection. A majority (50%) of these sites do not face any disturbance, while 40% are highly disturbed, 10% of the sites face moderate levels of disturbance. Breeding sites. In the UAE, flamingos have bred only in Abu Dhabi Emirate. Over the past 25 years, 12 breeding attempts were made out of which 10 were successful. Breeding was recorded at three close-by sites of Shahama Wetland, Bul Syayeef and AWWR (Figure 1, Table 2). Breeding was attempted on maximum number of 10 occasions in AWWR, out of which three attempts were made before 1999 when the area was declared as a reserve. In UAE, breeding has been recorded both during winter and summer months, although, breeding attempts were more during summer (58%) as compared to winter (42%). All the summer breeding attempts occurred al AWWR and egg laying was observed from April to June, during winter, egg laying extended over a longer period from November to March. In all the 12 breeding attempts, a total of 4,584 nest mounds were made. Out of these a total of 2,280 nest mounds (50%) were made in AWWR followed by 1,954 (42%) nest mounds recorded in Bul Syayeef and 350 (8%) at Shahama Wetland. The highest number of nest mounds made in a single breeding attempt was 1954 in Bul Syayeef in 2009 followed by 704 in AWWR in 2015 where the number of nest mounds has increased in the last five years (Table 2). Altogether, these 10 successful breeding attempts produced 1972 young, indicating an overall hatching success of 43%. Out of these 1972 young, highest number of 821 (42%) chicks hatched in AWWR from eight successful breeding attempts followed by 801 chicks (40%) in Bul Syayeef and 350 chicks (18%) in Shahama Wetland from single breeding events respectively. The highest number of young hatching in any breeding event was 801 in Bul Syayeef in 2009 followed by 420 in AWWR in 2015. The number of nest mounds and chicks hatched was highly positively correlated (r=0.928 Pearson correlation coefficient). The inter-annual variation has been high for the number of nest mounds (12 to 1954) as well as the number of chicks hatched (4 to 801). Hatching success in summer was lower (37%) as compared to winter (48%).
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There was no significant difference in the number of mounds and the number of chicks based on seasons (U=20.00, p=0.685, df=1 and U=15.50, p=0.745, df=1 respectively). Discussion Key wintering sites. Greater Flamingos are recorded throughout UAE between September and April. Key sites identified in this study are considered as species stronghold where large groups are seen regularly, these are mostly areas with shallow water, relatively less development and negligible disturbance. Advocating conservation of sites based on flamingo numbers has resulted in creation of three protected areas in the UAE; AWWR and Bul Syayeef Marine Protected Area in Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary in Dubai, all three have also been designated as Ramsar sites. A large proportion of wintering birds were recorded at four close-by sites located near Abu Dhabi city, this area has shallow seas and vast intertidal mudflats and inland wetlands. These sites are protected with very low disturbance levels. Five other important sites for flamingo are in the Northern Emirates, these are very large lagoons (Khors) but they lack proper protection and have witnessed high levels of development, habitat destruction and habitat alteration. Increased anthropogenic disturbance is responsible for low flamingo numbers at these sites that have large areas of suitable flamingo habitat. Breeding. Breeding was successful in UAE at sites that were undisturbed, predator free with optimal water levels and retain a high number of birds throughout the year (> 700 mean number). Breeding in Greater Flamingo is generally irregular and infrequent (Cramp, 1977, Ogilvie & Ogilvie, 1986; Brown, 1975). The first and second successful breeding occurred at AWWR after a gap of five years though birds attempted nesting regularly. It took another eight years for the birds to breed at Shahama wetland in 2007 and at Bul Syayeef in 2009. Greater Flamingo breeding period is variable in most of the tropics and subtropics (del Hoyo, Collar, & Garcia, 1992), interestingly breeding occurred in UAE in both winter and summer seasons. Breeding in two different seasons has also been reported in Algeria (Mesbaha et al., 2014). The timing of breeding is extremely variable, new colonies might witness late breeding in first years and with experience they begin earlier (Johnson & Cézilly, 2007). The first breeding in AWWR occurred in July when the temperature is very high while during the last two attempts, laying started in April. This would ensure better conditions for incubation and higher breeding success. More breeding attempts recorded in summer coincide with breeding near the Caspian Sea and Turkey (Balkız et al., 2015). Breeding is mostly synchronous, although, two or more crèches of different age classes were seen both at Bul Syayeef as well as Shahama Wetland. Breeding has been consistent and regularly successful at AWWR from 2010 to 2015 (Khan, Javed, Ahmed & Shah, 2015), it is one of the very few places in the world where regular breeding even for short periods has been recorded. This is attributed to the provision of an island to aid nesting and better protection and predator control. Nesting is almost exclusively successful on this island. An overall breeding success (number of chicks per number of mounds built) of 43% in UAE is one of the highest in the world compared to some recent records elsewhere e.g. in Cyprus (10% – Hadjisterkotis & Charalambrides, 2002), East Africa (31% – Brown, 1975), Tunisia (17% – Isenman, Gaultier, El Hili, Azafzaf, Dlensi & Smart, 2005 and 12% – Azafzaf, Feltrup-Azafzaf & Dlensi, 2007) and Spain (0-26% – Manez, Fernando, Héctor, Luis, José, José. del Valle, Alfredo & Rubén, 2009). For continued breeding of Greater Flamingo it is important to keep sites free from disturbance and predators.
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Funding This work was supported by the Environment Agency- Abu Dhabi as an internal project. Disclosure Statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. Acknowledgements We are grateful for the owners of Shahama farms for access to the waterbody. We also thank the managers/owners of various other sites in Northern Emirates for access and support. We are extremely thankful to Mustafa Hamid, coordinator at Al Wathba Wetland Reserve and Sirtaj Khan for their help during data collection.
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