Dear all,

A team made up from 30 researchers and students from the University of Guelma, Ouargla and Constantine set up on June 15 to reach El Goléa, a small oasis sandwiched between the Grand Erg oriental and the
Grand Erg occidental, right in the middle of the Algerian Sahara. The banding of Greater Flamingo chicks at El Goléa was the second banding operation in Algeria and North Africa and was thus a formidable challenge.

At dawn, on June 17, we attempted to surround the crèche made up of 23 chicks and drove it towards the corral.
Unfortunately, we were far too few to cover the huge inland lagoon and the
chicks quickly responded by splitting into two groups but we were lucky to herd a group of eight chicks into the corral.

Banding went swiftly and was a tremendous opportunity for students divided into teams to gather experience and prepare for a future banding operation at Ezzemoul. No chick was lost or injured during the operation. All 23 chicks were later observed to have reunited into a crèche. Noteworthy was the finding that two chicks were able to fly!! Our work is supported by the Algerian Ministère de l’Enseignement and the MAVA foundation.
The Flamingo project is carried out in collaboration with the Tour du Valat (France). A full account of the operation will be submitted to the next issue of "Flamingo".

Cheers,
Boudjéma

Pr. B. Samraoui
Laboratoire de Recherche et de Conservation des Zones Humides
Biology Department
University of Guelma
Guelma, Algeria
Tel: 00 213 (0)7 74 52 59 26