Birds of Conservation Concern at Al-Najaf Desert, Southern Desert of Iraq

Abstract

One eighth of the bird species in the world is considered globally threatened; the avifauna of Iraq comprises 409 species and is considered as the major indicator of the health of Iraq’s biological resources. The Iraqi geography falls into five main regions among which is the desert and semi-desert areas which cover much of the country area. Al-Najaf desert is still one of the poorly known regions from the biodiversity point of view. Birds of conservation concern are detected in Al-Najaf desert during 31 field trips to 20 sites conducted from August 2018 to April 2020, (citing literature records, and personal interviews with locals).The factors caused the bird numbers to decline in Al-Najaf desert include hunting and trapping, logging, invasive species, and climate change. Nine birds are found threatened with 3 EN and 6 VU comprising Saker Falcon Falco cherrug Gray, 1834 (Falconidae, Falconiformes), Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus Linnaeus, 1766 (Falconidae, Falconiformes), Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis Hodgson, 1833 (Accipitridae, Accipitriformes), Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Accipitridae, Accipitriformes), Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga (Pallas, 1811) (Accipitridae, Accipitriformes), Marbled Teal Marmaronetta angustirostris (Ménétrés, 1832) (Anatidae, Anseriformes), Macqueen's Bustard Chlamydotis macqueeni (Gray, 1834) (Otididae, Otidiformes), Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur (Linnaeus, 1758) (Columbidae, Columbiformes), and Southern Grey Shrike Lanius meridionalis aucheri Bonaparte, 1853 (Laniidae, Passeriformes). It is concluded that Al-Najaf desert is a region of top priority area for biodiversity conservation as it hosts large number of threatened bird species.

Conservation Need for a Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations Linked to Ephemeral Streams in Adverse Desert Environments

“…In fact, the study area embraces at least 12 species of conservation concern including the two mentioned plants, one vulnerable (VU) reptile Uromastyx aegyptia (Forskål. 1775) [55], nine birds assessed by Al-Rammahi and Mohammad [56] comprising the endangered (EN) species Falco cherrug (J.R. Gray. 1834), Aquila nipalensis (Hodgson.…”

The 2022 Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever outbreak in Iraq

“…Previous studies have acknowledged that ticks, mainly Hyalomma species, which is the principal vector of CCHF, and Rhipicephalus and Haemaphysalis (Hasson & Al-Zubaidi, 2014;Mohammad, 2016;Mallah & Rahif, 2016), commonly infest animals in Iraq. A literature review of various Medline platforms including PubMed, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Web of Science, and Ovid regarding the distribution of tick species showed a scarcity of publications on CCHF outbreaks, especially in Iraq.…”

Evaluation the Effect of some Plant Extracts in Controlling the Oriental Hornet vespa orientalis Linnaeus, 1771 Near the Apiaries

“…and the last factors of the indirect reasons that named anthropogenic. Moreover, it was found that the oriental hornet, Vespa orientalis Linnaeus, 1771(Hymenoptera, Vespidae); is very devastating predators of honeybees and become a limiting factor in the success of beekeeping 9]; furthermore this species is one of the most important pests aggressive and attacking A. mellifera colonies in many regions in the world [10,11], the hunting behavior of this wasp against honey bees in Iraq was also seen by Glaiim [12]. V. orientalis Linnaeus, 1771 is native to the southeastern Mediterranean, northeastern and eastern Africa, Middle East and Central Asia [13,14].…”

“…Volynchik [17] stated that the number of hornet workers comes out of the nest at the noon period more than the number of those comes out in the morning or evening period. It causes damage by destroying bee hives and by reducing or even inhibiting the flights of bees [12], which results in considerable loss for apiarists and reduced the pollination of crops; it has also become a serious pest of different fruit trees such as grape, date palm, pear, peach, ... etc.…”