FINAL REPORT

Prepared by: Peter Fehervari, Szabolcs Solt, Peter Palatitz

Small-scale Funding Agreement REF.: SSFA/CMSAD/2013/004 BAC 2013/MVL-2236-2B30-2261-2201 Satellite Tracking of Amur –

Nagaland,

The main objectives of the project are: a) To deploy modern technology in the form of lightweight satellite tags fitted to a small number of Amur Falcons trapped in Nagaland to track their amazing migration journeys; b) To better understand the behaviour and ecology of the Amur during its presence in Nagaland, along the migration routes and in the wintering areas in ; c) To utilise web-based tools to actively apply the information gained to raise awareness of the international importance of the Amur Falcon and to promote falcon conservation activities, particularly amongst local communities in Nagaland; and, d) To demonstrate the value and effectiveness of international collaborative actions under the auspices of the CMS Raptors MoU to promote the conservation of migratory of prey.

Benefits The key benefits expected from this project include:

Enhanced knowledge of the behaviour and ecology of the Amur Falcon, particularly during its presence in Nagaland, along the migration flyway in and Africa.

Engagement of local communities in falcon conservation by means of exciting and innovative opportunities to raise awareness of the Amur Falcon, including its amazing migration journey and the threats it faces.

Promotion of the positive conservation activities being undertaken by the Government of India, at both national and state levels, with the support of non-governmental organisations.

Increased survival of Amur Falcons by reducing the harvest of the species in Nagaland.

Demonstration of the value and effectiveness of international collaborative actions under the auspices of the CMS Raptors MoU to promote the conservation of migratory birds of prey.

Field work 2013.11.02-2013.11.10

Participants:

 Nick P. Williams (UNEP CMS Raptors MoU)

 R. Suresh Kumar (Wildlife Institute of India)

 Szabolocs Solt (MME/BirdLife Hungary)

 Peter Fehérvári (Hungarian Natural History Museum)

Just short of a whole day spent flying, we (Szabolcs Solt, and Peter Fehérvári) arrived on the 3rd of November to Guwahati airport where we met Nick P. Williams (UNEP CMS Raptors MoU) and R. Suresh Kumar (Wildlife Institute of India). The day’s travel didn’t just end there; we sat another half day in the Mahindra 4x4 kindly provided by the Nagaland Department of Forests, Ecology, Environment and Wildlife, arriving at Dimapur late in the evening. The next day continued with a meeting Mr. T.M. Lotha, Chief Wildlife Warden informing him about the purpose of our visit, and detailing our itinerary for the week. As a symbolic gesture, we were honoured to receive the traditional Naga waistcoat from Mr Lotha demonstrating the kindness and thoughtfulness of the people from the forestry service and the locals that we were to experience throughout our journey. Mr.Lotha explained that the Nagaland Forestry Department had launched a comprehensive campaign to halt the unreasonable mass harvest of Amur Falcons. One result of this campaign is a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Pangti, Ashaa and Sungro villages acknowledging that killing and trapping of Amur Falcons is illegal on their land and is a punishable crime. The local hunters understood the importance of the roost sites in their vicinity, as no trapping has been carried out this season. Merit goes to Zuthunglo Patton and Hemant Kamdi, two young forestry officers who played an eminent role in organizing and implementing the conservation measures.

Following the meeting, we set out to reach Doyang before sunset, giving us an opportunity to for the first time experience the unspeakable; hundreds of thousands of falcons pouring in like flocks of starlings from the surrounding valleys to the roost sites. Despite our experience in counting raptors, we were reluctant to even estimate the magnitude of the number of birds; even the most pessimistic figures were at least a million falcons entering the area that day. The falcons settled into two discrete areas approx. 2.5 km away, with the smaller roost (holding 20-30 thousand birds) being seemingly better for trapping in the following days.

The evening and the next morning was about assessing the possibilities for setting up the nets to trap and tag 3 Amur Falcons with satellite tags (Microwave Telemetry Ltd., 5 gram PTT). After compiling all the ideas we managed to erect a single canopy net on the 5th of November. Although, the locals seemingly liked the idea and the methods we used, they claimed that the mist-net’s height was just not enough to trap the birds. Well, they were right as we only managed to capture a couple of fruit and nectar eating bats that evening. On the 6thwe tried a different approach; basically we combined our equipment with the know-how of local villagers (the same people who last year had trapped and killed thousands of falcons) and placed out three canopy mist-nets approx. 3 meters higher than the previous one. Although, the birds behaved somewhat differently each night, we still got immense number of birds in the right location. We could hardly wait for the night to set in and sneaked into the roost like thieves to check the mist-nets where finally we managed to trap a total of 30 birds. Late in the evening after safely removing all birds we immediately selected the three to-be-tagged individuals, an adult male and two adult females. The birds were kept safe for the evening and the delicate procedure of sampling, ringing and tagging started early on the 7th of November. The first “Naga” the adult male was released by Mr. Lokeswara Rao Madiraju, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & Head of Forest Force of Nagaland.

The second bird “Wokha”, named after the district in Nagaland where Doyang is located was released by Nick P. Williams (CMS Raptors MoU) and R. Suresh Kumar (WII), while the third bird “Pangti” was set free by the leaders and hunters of Pangti village.

They even prayed for the well-being and safe return of this adult female to Nagaland before she was set free. Standing amongst the villagers and hearing them pray for a bird that just last year they regarded as food was a heart-breaking moment making us both understand what an extraordinary community the Naga tribes have. All other trapped birds were colour ringed and set free after several sampling procedures.

Migration routes of the tagged individuals

All three individuals left Nagaland soon after tag deployment and commenced migration towards the wintering grounds. In general all three birds used a similar route surprisingly flying over the Bay of Bengal and later crossed the Indian subcontinent eastwards between latitudes 15N-18N. Reaching the western coastline of India the route bearings turned south-west above the Arabian Sea with all three birds reaching Africa in Somalia. The first major stop-over for all three birds was in the savannah zone of , in south east Kenya. The birds later headed towards crossing the Rift Valley between Lake Rukwa and Lake Malawi. All three birds settled into a relatively small area compared to the winter distribution of the species, following a period of visiting a couple of sites soon after arrival. However, not all three individuals utilized the same habitats.

Individual description of migratory trajectories The paragraphs below give a concise description of the most interesting patterns in individual movements between 2013.11.07.-2014.03.26. We used google terrain maps to visualize and highlight the routes of the tagged birds. However, all tracks are readily available at http://satellitetracking.eu/page/information/.

Naga (adult male)

This individual is the record holder of contiguous flight distance amongst the three birds as it flew for a total of 5 days 10 hours while crossing from southern Bangladesh to Somalia covering a total of 5600 kms without stopping. Intriguingly, it flew for over a day well over the Bay of Bengal covering a large bulk of the distance at night.

Reaching the shore of Africa it headed towards Kenya where it spent a total of 30 days at well- defined locations in the East Tsavo and Amboseli National Parks. Leaving the area in mid-December it headed towards Botswana where it settled into the central part of the country approx. 100 kms south of the Makgadikgadi Pans. This are is predominantly Mopane dominated bush land on sandy soil.

Wokha (adult female)

This individual obtained a somewhat different strategy compared to Naga when commencing migration from north-east India. Leaving Nagaland it also headed towards Bangladesh, however flew considerably less over water in the Bay of Bengal. Moreover, it also flew only during the day above land, stopping each night at different locations in central India. The trajectory above the Arabian Sea turned west, thus the birds reached the shores in northern Somalia, well over the tip of the Horn of Africa in the Gulf of Aden.

The birds then spent 2 weeks in Kenya, quite near to the sites Naga was using in the same time. Heading south it settled into a well-known roost site in Harrysmith, , after making a considerable loop in north east South Africa.

Pangti (adult female) This birds, as the two previous birds, flew over the Bay of Bengal soon after initiating migration from Nagaland. Reaching the shores of Africa took approx 6 and a half days for Pangti from the Sunderbans in southern Bangladesh.

Of the three tagged individuals it spent the least time in East Africa (7-8 days) and was the first to arrive to the wintering grounds in southern Africa.

Before settling in to the final location, Pangti spent notable time in north east South Africa, near the Polokwane. Currently, the birds spends its evenings at roost site in Ventersdorp, west of Johanessburg, where it roosts together with lesser . Both females final roost sites are located in highfelt grasslands.