The Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency has released 75 Saker and Peregrine falcons into the wild in northern Pakistan as part of its falcon release programme.

The birds were released between April 20 and 22 in Pakistan's Chitral District near the Afghan border. Under the programme, which began in 1995, a total of 584 falcons has been returned to the wild in Kharan and Gilgit districts of Pakistan and the area around Lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan.

The latest release - 10 Saker and 65 Peregrine falcons - was organised by the agency with the support of the Falcon Hospital at Al Khazna, the World Wide Fund for Nature in Pakistan and the Falcon Foundation International.

Six falcons - five Peregrine and one Saker - were fitted with advanced satellite transmitters. The transmitters have an extended life expectancy of three to five years. Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency, said yesterday that the falcon release programme was inspired by the keen interest of President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in wildlife development and the conservation of endangered species.

For the first time this year, the agency had invited UAE nationals to contribute wild Peregrine falcons to the Sheikh Zayed Falcon Release Programme. The initiative received good response, and eight physically fit Peregrines were included in the release programme, he added.

Sheikh Hamdan said that the agency has been working in collaboration with wildlife authorities and conducting research and conservation programmes with scientists and conservation institutions in Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. Prior to release, each bird is provided with several weeks of daily exercise and fed a special weight-increase diet. This improves the bird's chances of survival in the crucial first two weeks of re-adaptation.

The falcons were transported in an air force plane and the president of the WWF for Pakistan, who also represents the Falcon Foundation International, accompanied the team during the release. The agency said that Chitral District was chosen this year because it offers appropriate conditions as a starting point for migration.

Evidence collected previously in Chitral shows that the site is used as a migration route in spring by Saker and Peregrine falcons moving northwards to their breeding grounds in Central Asia.