| Falcons (Falco spp.) are widely used for falconry in the countries of the Middle East. During the 2015 breeding season, we surveyed historic and active nest sites of Barbary (Falco pelegrinoides pelegrinoides ) and Lanner (F. biarmicus) Falcons in Saudi Arabia. Field and questionnaire surveys were conducted and personal contact with falconers was made to document the current distribution and price changes for Lanner Falcons, Barbary Falcons, Saker Falcons (F. cherrug), Peregrine Falcons (F. peregrinus), Gyrfalcons (F. rusticolus ), and Hybrid Falcons in Saudi Arabia. We categorized our survey into three geographic groups; southwest (A), northwest (B), and central (C) regions of the country. We visited 1,255 historic nest sites of Lanner Falcons and Barbary Falcons. No active Lanner Falcon nests were recorded in any of the survey sites. Approximately 14.7% (n = 111) of 725 Barbary Falcon nests were active. In 2015, 4% (n = 26) of inactive nests were occupied by an unpaired male. Productivity was 1.33 young fledged/pair, and nest success was 28.7% (n = 35, SE = 4.37, CI = 20.12--37.26). Nesting in the northwest declined approximately 7.69% from 2004. In 2015, we documented 9,092 falcons in captivity in Saudi Arabia. We sub-sampled 119 falcons to determine health; 36.1% were considered unhealthy while 63.9% were considered healthy. Approximately 95.5% of captive falcons died before the age of 6 and the average lifespan was 3 years (SE = 0.22, n = 169). At least 2,544 adult and juvenile Lanner and Peregrine Falcons were trapped and smuggled to the Middle East in the 2015 harvest season. In 2014, there were approximately 4,027 falcons trapped in the Middle East (Libya 35.0%, Arabian Gulf 15.5%, Iran 11.1%, Turkey 9.9%, Egypt 8.6%, Yemen 8.1%, Sudan 7.9%, and Jordan 3.4%). Average auction price of wild captured falcons increased between 2005--2014 by approximately 723% (... |
