QATAR NATURAL HISTORY GROUP

2018/2019 SEASON

Newsletter n°2 QNHG Newsletter – March 2019

We’re planning to have a 40th anniversary picnic !

e’d like to revive the QNHG picnics tradition, and take this Wopportunity to celebrate our 40th anniversary. So mark your calendar for Friday April 12th. QNHG visit at , with Dr Ferhan, We’ll be heading to the West coast, South February 2019 of , to a little known family beach, with shaded playgrounds and facilities. Bring your chair, extra shade, food and drinks. Overseas Trips

We have a group of QNHG explorers who will head to Ethiopia, from April 5th to the 9th. The country is often referred to as the birthplace of humanity, and has so much to offer in terms of culture, history and biodiversity.

We’ll have some fun, enjoying the beach and discovering the area…

4x4 or SUV is necessary since getting to this destination involves some off road driving...

On their list : Addis Ababa city, National Museum, Mt Entoto, Debre Zeit, Abiata Shalla National Park, and some of the Rift Valley lakes.

We’re already planning for the next season, with Oman, Turkey, Kenya or Ethiopia in mind… So stay tuned !

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Cyanobacteria and toxins in Help Needed! esearch conducted by our wonderful talks coordinator has been featured At QNHG we’re all volunteers. We Rin Fortune Magazine. Here is an have some open positions for the excerpt of their press release : steering committee:

Led by Harvard-trained ethnobotanist Dr. Paul - Ramble coordinators Alan Cox, research by a 50-scientist - Social secretary international consortium, has highlighted the potential of the dietary amino acid L-serine as Please contact Thierry Lesales a means of slowing protein misfolding [email protected] characteristic of Alzheimer's, ALS, and other progressive neurodegenerative diseases. Or any comittee member at the table during the next meeting. “Dr. Aspassia D. Chatziefthimiou, Microbial Ecologist and Visiting Research Scientist at Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar, has examined risk factors and protective mechanisms in the Thank you ! desert,” said Dr. Cox. “It is the combined strength of our consortium members that has moved this work forward in unprecedented ways,” said Dr. Sandra Banack, Senior From the Library Scientist at Brain Chemistry Labs. “Dr. Chatziefthimiou’s research, supported by a generous National Research Priorities Project grant from the Qatar National Research Fund, We are very grateful to our members who volunteered to help with data entry. That was has demonstrated that toxic exposure from fantastic ! We now have an online catalog, cyanobacterial sources are prevalent in the accessible through our website. desert and not always where you would predict” said Dr. Banack. It will be easier to browse through our collection, and the system allows you to check “How extraordinarily unlikely and yet whether a title is available or not, and place a wonderful would it be if Cox and his lending request. colleagues were right—and the best This is a huge achievement and a big step prevention for some of these terrifying forward ! diseases turns out to be a naturally occurring protein building block rather than a high- Next on our to-do list, is the digitization of our priced drug?” Fortune opines. archives. We have unique, rare and very interesting documents on the history of the Hats off, and best wishes for a sucessful group, the Qatari environment, and its outcome on this important topic ! evolution. And we'd like to value them, making them accessible and searchable. The full article can be accessed online : We would appreciate any help, any suggestion http://fortune.com/longform/alzheimers- to proceed with this project. disease-cure-breakthrough/

2 QNHG Newsletter – March 2019

« You don’t need to be a bird expert, Birdwatching or go out all day long. Even 10 minutes in your backyard will help. Global Big Day runs from midnight to n March 30th, we’ll have a midnight in your local time zone. You birdwatching trip in the vicinity of can report birds from anywhere in the OIrkaya farm, one of Qatar’s hotspots world. » for birders… We should have some guests – Cornell Lab of Ornithology from the « Friends of Nature » organization. They do have a program called « My country birds » which aims at educating (More info on : ebird.org/globalbigday) communities and students about the birds of Qatar. We’re looking forward to spend time with them on the field.

Let’s keep in touch!

Make sure to update your email address during registration in order to receive our regular announcements

Red-tailed Shrike, Ras Abrouq You can follow us through Our website On May 4th, The Cornell Lab of www.qnhg.org Ornithology organizes its Global Big Day, and we can join more than 30,000 bird watchers all over the world to report birds On Facebook sightings. www.facebook.com/qnhg.org/

We just need to watch for birds and enter our sightings via eBird website or via the On Instagram eBird app. www.instagram.com/qatarnaturalhistory/

It’s a good opportunity to go out and contribute to a global initiative.

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Citizen Science

hile roaming through Qatar, we have many opportunities to make Wuseful observations, that can contribute to raise awareness and lead to a better knowledge of the Qatari environment.

Do not hesitate to report your observations, share your pictures and videos through our email or our facebook page. This will enrich our citizen science project. Make sure you provide the date and location.

Striolated Bunting, Irkaya Farm

Oryx, Ras Abrouq

There are also some very useful phone apps, that can help learn more about the fauna and flora of Qatar.

- Qatar e-Nature - iNaturalist - eBird - GoBird Desert Mantis, Messaieed iNaturalist and eBird are community based apps, so you can create free accounts to More info on the « citizen science » section of register and share your observations. People our website. can help with identification too.

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Featured Research

If you are doing research on any topic related to nature and the environment in Qatar, or know someone who is, please let us and we will feature it in our newsletter.

Your contributions are always Yellow-spotted Agama, Zekreet appreciated.

On the Agenda

March 30th

Birdwatching trip to Irkaya farm

Earth Hour – Turn off the lights from 20:30 to 21:30… and contribute to this worldwide campaign against climate change

April 3rd

Talk on coral reefs

April 5th-9th

Trip to Ethiopia

April 12th

QNHG 40th anniversary Picnic, Umm Bab area

May 1st

Talk and following ramble to be announced

May 4th

Global Big Day by Cornell Lab of Ornithology – Birdwatching trip. Location to be announced.

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