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The printed version of this book is now out of print, though a PDF version can be downloaded from http://www.thelastflight.org/
A conservation struggle against time was fought in Syria between 2002 and 2011, the aim being to prevent the last known and genetically unique population of Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita) in the Middle East from becoming extinct.
The Nothern Bald Ibis had been declared extinct in Syria from the early 30s and in the whole Middle East in 1989. The news of the discovery of a relic colony of 7 individuals of this species in Palmyra desert, Syria, in 2002 made headlines on international media; reviving the hopes to be still on time to rescue the oriental population from extinction – and suddenly turning the species as the most threatened one in the Middle East.
The conservation saga in Syria began well in 2002 and achieved important results between 2002 and mid-2004. Due to a change of management, a gap in efforts was created starting from mid-2004 and the first significant setbacks ensued in the form of two breeding failures in 2005 and 2008. The project continued with alternating fortunes up to 2009-2010 while the colony size in parallel declined inexorably. At the onset of the unrest in Syria in 2011 the fate of the last Northern Bald Ibis colony of the Middle East was sealed with only one pair left. 2015 was the first year that no bird returned to the breeding grounds in Palmyra – the same year when the millenary enchanted ruins of Palmyra were destroyed by the war.
The recent – most likely final – extinction of this ancient and iconic population of Northern Bald Ibis is fully documented. The Last Flight of the Ancient Guide of Hajj was designed to provide an independent recount of this conservation saga and to set the record straight.
