Conservation breeding program

    Thanks to a sound fundamental and applied research policy, the ECWP achieved a high level of expertise in the captive-breeding of the houbara bustard. The breeding results have been progressing at a steady pace, increasing from 165 chicks born in captivity in 1997 to 16,624 in 2009 and above 20,000 since 2013.

    ECWP Houbara production

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    That rise has helped to ensure the presence, in captivity, of a viable population representative of the species’ genetic diversity and capable of renewing itself while producing a large surplus of birds for release into the wild. In that way, the ECWP’s houbara bustard program possesses all the earmarks of a conservation breeding program and has become a pillar in the strategy to restore the species.