Ibis is struggling for survival

THE news from Syria is so dreadful, you must forgive me for mentioning something trivial; reports this week say only one bald ibis has returned to Palmyra, the site of the country’s only breeding colony.

Not everything is bad on the ibis front, however; significant progress is reported from a Spanish reintroduction project, supported by Dublin Zoo. This critically endangered species doesn’t visit Ireland, but the zoo’s bald ibises are among our rarest breeding birds.

The northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) is a big black shaggy bird with a long pink bill, curved downwards like a curlew’s. The head is bare, vulture-like. Ibises resemble waders, although herons and storks are their closest relatives. The bald species likes dry stony places, where it pokes for creepy crawlies with its forceps-like beak. The glamorous sacred ibis, gleaming white with a black head and neck, is a close relative. The ancient Egyptians mourned the departure of the life-giving sun each evening. The lunar deity Thoth offered some consolation. The ibis bill resembles a new moon, so the bird came to represent Thoth. It was mummified and placed in graves with the deceased. The bald species once bred throughout North Africa, the Middle East and Europe as far north as Germany. The Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner depicted what he called ‘the forest raven’ in his Historia Animalium of 1555. Ibises were good to eat, he declared.