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Trade Analysis of Birds of Prey (Accipitriformes, Cathartiformes a Falconiformes) in EU
RICHTROVÁ, Zuzana
Wildlife trade is a significant factor affecting situation of some species in the wild. Especially its illegal part, which is also very profitable similarly as arms trade and drugs trade, may be fatal for some species. Today, birds of prey are one of the most often traded groups of birds in the world and falconry is the main driving force of this trade. Although development of methods of captive breeding of birds of prey was an important turning point for their protection, it was not able to fully suppress taking them from the wild. Until recently, the European market was a large consumer of imported birds but European Union policy makes imports, especially for wild birds, more and more difficult. Thus it supports another aspect which is historically rooted in this area, namely breeding. A keeping and captive breeding of birds of prey is increasing in Europe and it takes part in global market. The goal of this thesis was to analyse content and volume of the trade with live specimens of birds of prey within EU for period 2000-2017. In addition to the EU as a whole, data for the Czech Republic were also processed. The EU has proven to be an important exporter with an upward trend, whereas imports have been restricted, especially since 2006, and still decrease. In general, the most traded birds are hybrid falcons and also a Gyrfalcon which is determined by Middle East demand. Although there are almost only captive birds in European export, there still are wild birds in some imports, especially vultures from Guinea. The Czech Republic copies European trends more or less. It seems that there is more birds of Accipitriformes order in the intra-European trade than in the trade with third countries. It emerged that European legislations can have a significant impact on the trade, even in global terms. An unpleasant finding was that used sources (especially the CITES database) have to be taken with discretion because they contain many mistakes and inconsistencies which may dramatically affect the results.
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Problems of hybrids and non-native species of falconry birds of prey (Falconiformes)
RICHTROVÁ, Zuzana
There have been more and more discussions of the influence of falconry on wild populations of birds of prey in recent years. Where the main topic previously dealt with stealing young birds from nests, today's concerns revolve around interspecific hybrids and non-native species. This thesis therefore focuses on these issues and attempts at collecting available information. The main finding is that only few serious researches have been carried out on this topic so nobody can make a conclusion that would subsequently lead to practical interventions. The available sources clearly show that non-native species are most likely not to pose any risk to nature. In contrast, the information on hybrids was very inconsistent and often diverged. It is probable that hybrids have some influence in nature; but to determine its severity and whether or not intervention is required, we need to carry out a detailed scientific study. IAF (International Association for Falconry) recommends a number of measures that seem to be sufficient at the time and they include: - ban on arbitrary discharge of hybrids and non-native species into the wild - ban on free-hacking while training these birds - requirement to use telemetry in training - requirement to use maximum effort in order to trace these birds in case they get lost - imprinting of young hybrids in species that is not found in nature in the given area Improvement should mainly be made in the registration of birds of prey. At this point and in most countries, it does not allow you to trace the birds' parents reliably and, as a consequence, one cannot unambiguously determine whether the bird in question is a hybrid or pure species.
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