BirdLife International in Indochina The Babbler 33 - March 2010
Hugh Wright U is ibis crazy
nderstanding why a particular waterbird is so rare and what can be done to save it is what drives Hugh Wright, a PhD researcher from University of East Anglia, UK. Hugh has spent the last two and a half years focusing his studies on White-shouldered Ibis Pseudibis davisoni , a critically endangered bird of which little is known. A lot of sweat poured through three fieldwork seasons in the hot Cambodian dry season is producing results that conservationists can act on. White-shouldered Ibis once occurred across South-East Asia in a variety of open and wetland habitats and it was even considered a “common” bird in some places. Since the 1930s it experienced a severe decline and went almost unrecorded in the 1980s and 1990s. Thankfully, conservationists rediscovered populations in southern Laos, northern and eastern Cambodia and southern Vietnam and started raising questions about why this species had become so rare. In 2008, Hugh began a long-overdue research project to reveal this species’ requirements and began implementing conservation activities specifically targeting this species.
Photo: Nicolas Cornet
“I want to provide evidence for the most important aspects the species’ ecology
profile and the effectiveness of different conservation techniques”, explains Hugh, “the foraging and breeding ecology are particularly crucial factors that conservationists could enhance to benefit this species”. Hugh’s work involves a wide range of activities including monitoring population size, assessing feeding habitat quality and the role of domestic livestock, monitoring and protecting nests and camera trapping nest predators.
and high motivation. Working in the forest for many months continuously can be tough both physically and mentally. Hugh admits that before studying Whiteshouldered Ibis he had no tropical fieldwork experience and was a little nervous about starting. “I first came to Cambodia to do MSc research in 2008. I was lucky to be given the option of a PhD before I even started that work, but accepting it was a tricky decision - I’d never been to a developing country before or even The last year has been particularly re- a tropical environment so I didn’t know warding, as Hugh and his survey team what to expect. In retrospect though, takhave found record numbers of ibis and ing on the PhD was a great decision”. record numbers of nests. In July 2009, a coordinated roost count across north Hugh’s research goes further than species and east Cambodia found 310 birds. Im- ecology to explore the potential role that proved knowledge like this is helping local people can play to help conserve BirdLife International to make a more the ibis. “Studying the habitat dynamaccurate assessment of the species’ sta- ics within dry forest landscapes has retus. At Western Siem Pang IBA, where vealed that traditional land management Hugh undertakes the majority of his by local communities is relevant to the work, the team found over 20 nests this species’ survival”, says Hugh. “The exyear. This is further evidence that West- tensive grazing of wetlands and seasonal ern Siem Pang IBA is the most globally pools by cattle and buffalo, the routine important site for this rare species. Half burning of forest understorey and the of the nests were guarded by local people availability of abandoned rice fields are to learn whether nest protection is a fea- all important factors for creating suitable sible and effective conservation action ibis habitat”. Hugh expects that his PhD for improving breeding success. thesis will draw upon the theme of sustainable conservation that directly benStudying this species and its environ- efits from the activities of local people. ment in such detail requires dedication 49