Falcons to be tagged with microchips

Falcons in the UAE will be tagged with microchips and customs officials at airports, and seaports will be given hand-held readers to identify the birds going out of the country.

The microchip, the size of a rice grain, will be injected just under the skin of the falcon, and the chip will have all the information about the bird, such as its age, the owner's name, and when and where it was tagged.

Mansoor Al Mansoori, Director of the Emirates Falconers Club in Abu Dhabi, said this service is provided free to the bird owners, and so far more than 3,000 falcons have been registered using this new method of tagging.

Volunteers will help do the tagging if the owners are unable to go to the various centres set up by the club.

The special readers will stop falcon smuggling, he said, adding that this is being done under the instructions of the Environm-ental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA), who in turn were advised by the Swiss-based Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

CITES had earlier partially lifted the ban imposed on the UAE, which allows the transport of live birds of prey for non-commercial purposes.

The Federal Environmental Agency (FEA) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries are coordinating this programme. Once registered, all falcons will hold individual travel documents or "passports".

"Any falcon leaving the country should have proper travel documents or have permission from Cites," he said.

Falconers welcomed the innovative idea and said that it would save the species from extinction.

Ahmed Al Hamadi, a falconer from Abu Dhabi, said: "This new idea is very helpful if someone steals the falcon. They won't be able to take it out of the country or sell it because it has a chip in its neck which will identify me as the owner."

Hamad Mohammed, a falconer from Al Ain, said: "When I heard about this new system, I immediately registered my falcon."

The falcon registration data also includes whether the bird is a male or a female, and its type, such as a Peregrine,captive bred or wild. It will also carry information on the origin of the bird and date of acquisition.