Roy Lupton breeds high-speed falcons in the UK for houbara bustard hunting in the Middle East and the ‘Stans. He travels to Azerbaijan to see his birds in action.
Like with wildlife all over the world, hunters are not hunting the houbara bustard to extinction – they are bringing them back from extinction. Like with wildlife all over the world, it’s up to hunters to save the houbara, because nobody else is interested in the birds. HoubaraFund.org is set up with Gulf money. In 2017 alone, it bred and and reintroduced 60,000 houbara bustards to Morocco, Kazakhstan and United Arab Emirates.
This is the formula one of falconry: big budgets and elite entertainment. A well-bred falcon goes for as much as a best English gun or about two Formula 1 car steering wheels: around £60,000.
▶ Thanks to Mark Williams for the bustard photography MarkWilliamsPhotographer.com
▶ For more, visit HoubaraFund.org
This item appears on YouTube in Fieldsports Britain, episode 436 Bit.ly/fieldsportsbritain436
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