North African Ostrich

    The North African ostrich has declined sharply over the past 50 years and is close to extinction in the wild. The main causes are hunting, egg collection and habitat loss. The species is found today in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Senegal and Tunisia. In Niger, the last wild ostrich died in 2004.

    A national strategy to conserve the North African ostrich, in which the Sahara Conservation Fund is involved, exists since 2016 in Niger. The strategy involves breeding ostriches, with the goal of being able to release them back into the wild. There are three breeding centers with a total of about 50 ostriches in the country.

    The Kolmården Foundation supports a project that together with Niger's authorities and the Sahara Conservation Fund create opportunities for the breeding and deployment of the endangered North African ostrich. This takes place on site at the Kellé breeding center in Niger and the reintroduction takes place to the Gadabeji Biosphere Reserve, where the species existed until 1955.

    Stakes

    Within the framework of the project, among other things, the following actions are carried out: Daily control of the ostriches kept at the Kellé Breeding Center:

    • Health checks, behavioral changes, food and water availability.

    Reproduction is carefully controlled to maximize numbers chicks hatching.

    • Both artificial and natural hatching are used to increase numbers

    surviving chickens. The Sahara Conservation Fund collaborates with Moroccan nature conservation authorities for knowledge exchange, among others about the best way to hatch chickens.

    • Increased exchange of eggs and chicks between the different breeding centers, to get as good a genetic spread as possible and reduce the risk of inbreeding.
    • Employment of local people to take care of the ostriches, do work on buildings and facilities, maintenance work, etc.
    • Vaccination against Newcastle Disease on all chickens at the Kellé Breeding Centre.
    • Movements of chickens to Gadabeji Biosphere Reserve. In 2021-2022, 11 chickens were moved to an acclimatization pen at the reserve.