Join us for an engaging discussion as expert speaker Dr. Ludovic Ferrière from The Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi (NHMAD) shares insights into meteorites and the ongoing search for impact craters on Earth.

Join us for an engaging evening focused on wildlife conservation and climate change, hosted by The Emirates Natural History Group (ENHG)Abu Dhabi.  Schedule 6:00 PM: Introduction by Claudia Steuber, Chair of ENHG Abu Dhabi   6:15 PM - 7:30 PM: Presentation by Dr. Liz Bennett on Mitigating Climate Change and Conserving Wildlife, followed by a 15-minute Q&A session.   7:30 PM - 8:00 PM: Coffee and Snacks   8:00 PM - 9:00 PM: Presentation by Dr. Resit Akacaya on Measuring Species Recovery, with a 15-minute Q&A session afterwards. The evening will conclude with remarks from Claudia Steuber. We look forward to an informative and inspiring event! For More Information contact Toni Metcalfe Email - gilmorehk@hotmail.com WhatsApp - 00971(0)529424448   

This talk will be in person-The Southern Sun Hotel-Meeting Room 2-https://maps.app.goo.gl/icYs8ooSp8WnHYRc6   About the speaker: Janaina Torres Carreira graduated with a Veterinary Medicine degree in 2005 from São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Araçatuba, São Paulo in Brazil.  Her path of interest was then continued with a Master on Animal Reproduction in 2008 and a Ph.D. on Animal Reproduction in 2012 both from São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Jaboticabal, São Paulo in Brazil. She followed with a Post Doctorate on Sperm nuclear organization from Universite Clermont-Auvergne (UCA) in Clermont-Ferrand, France. She complemented her rigorous education by excelling in her career choices which included working as an assistant professor of animal reproduction and obstetrics at Rio Preto University (UNIRP) from 2012 to 2016. She continued to develop in her professional path as she later became Professor of veterinary physiology, animal reproduction, and obstetrics at the Federal Institute of Minas Gerais (IFMG) from 2017 to 2019. Moreover, Janaina became founding member of the Brazilian Society for Animal Andrology (ABRAA) and joined as a member of the Animal Applied Andrology Association (AAAA). Janaina has been working at Reneco International Wildlife consultants in Abu Dhabi as a Reproduction Physiology Researcher since July 2019, examining quality different aspects of bustards and falcons’ reproduction and advance biotechnologies, such as artificial insemination and sperm preservation, which are fundamental components of captive conservation activities. About the talk: Applied reproductive biotechnology for houbara bustard conservation. Over the last 30 years, unregulated hunting and habitat loss led to the decline of the North African and Asian houbara houbara populations (Chlamydotis undulata and Ch. macqueenii), today both classified as vulnerable by the IUCN.  To support both in and ex-situ conservation actions through the ranges of both species, Abu Dhabi developed large scale conservation breeding programs (www.houbarafund.org). Captive breeding is based on a strict genetic management and the use of artificial insemination. This talk aims to highlight the reproductive particularities of the species, and how the current applied reproductive biotechnologies, as sperm cryopreservation (genome resource bank), combined with artificial insemination are keys to the genetic management and reproductive success of captive birds. Special thanks to Nautica Environmental Associates for sponsoring this event.     

We are delighted to invite you to an upcoming nature exploration at Al Qudra area, renowned for its rich biodiversity. Our plan is to explore this unique ecosystem on Friday evening, preferably one hour before sunset. Together, we will venture away from the picnic spots and discover a secluded location brimming with abundant natural life. Prepare to observe and familiarize yourselves with the remarkable diversity of species inhabiting this area, including spiders, dragonflies, beetles, and antlions. Here is the outline of our nature walk: 📍 Location : Al Qudra Area ( Exact location will be shared later ) 🌅 Plan: Exploration, Observation, and Documentation 💡 Highlights of the Nature Walk: 1️⃣ Roam around the area, familiarizing ourselves with the natural surroundings and observing the diverse wildlife. 2️⃣ Discover water bodies and dense bushes that serve as habitats for various fascinating species. 3️⃣ Observe and document different species, such as spiders, dragonflies, beetles, and antlions, as they go about their natural behaviors. 4️⃣ Appreciate the intricate dynamics of nature as the day shift seamlessly transitions into the night shift. 🌛 Evening Activities: 1️⃣ Set up a Moth Screen illuminated by a strong light source to attract moths and other nocturnal insects. 2️⃣ Observe the captivating transformation of the environment as darkness falls and nocturnal creatures become active. 3️⃣ Utilize headlamps and UV lights to explore the area and spot hidden nocturnal species. 🌃 Nighttime Exploration: 1️⃣ Stay until midnight to witness the bustling activity around the moth screen as various moths and insects visit. 2️⃣ Engage in detailed observations, photography, and documentation of the intriguing moths and insects. 🦟 Important Note: Please be aware that the area is home to horse-flies, which can cause allergic reactions. To ensure your comfort and protection, we recommend wearing long sleeves or using insect repellents. 🚩 Logistics: In order to enhance our observation experience, we kindly request someone to bring strong lights and poles for the moth screen setup. I will provide the white screen required for our activities. Your contribution will greatly facilitate our scientific exploration. Let us approach this nature walk with enthusiasm, scientific rigor, and a collaborative spirit. Each one of us plays a crucial role in planning and contributing to the success of this event. Feel free to share your expertise, suggestions, and ideas to make this a truly enriching experience for all participants. Our trip leaders will be Kiran and Biju, who know the area well.  The trip has limited spaces and places will be given on a first-come served basis. Please inform us if you secure a place and then cannot attend as this give a fair chance for others who missed out on getting a place. More information regarding our adventure will be sent out once places have been secured. Warm regards, The ENHG team      

  Dear members! We are excited to invite you on a trip out to an area close to Abu Dhabi to look for spiders and other insects to observe behavior and see if we can identify the species. We will continue our search as darkness descends and it becomes easier to spot some species with our head torches reflecting light off the many spider eyes glistening in the foliage and small burrows. Joining our trip will be some biologists and local wildlife enthusiasts who are passionate about sharing their knowledge of the area and the insects,animals and plants that inhabit it. The trip has limited spaces and places will be given on a first-come served basis. Please inform us if you secure a place and then cannot attend as this give a fair chance for others who missed out on getting a place. More information regarding our adventure will be sent out once places have been secured. We are looking forward to seeing you there! Warm Regards The ENHG Team

We will meet at 2.30 pm at the Visitor Center of the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve. During a 6 km walk through the reserve, experienced ornithologist Oscar Campbell will help to find and identify resident and migratory bird species.   Oscar Campbell, originally from Ireland, has been living in the UAE since 2006. He is a keen natural historian with a particular interest in birds. He is currently chairman of the Emirates Bird Record Committee and co-authored Butterflies of the United Arab Emirates including Northern Oman (Motivate, 2021). His current major project is working on the third edition of Field Guide to the Birds of the Middle East (Bloomsbury, to be published 2023).   On our way through the reserve, we will also have a look at plants and insects and different geomorphological structures. On our way back we will try to observe, from a non-disturbing distance, Western Marsh Harries (latest count was 50+ ) arriving for communal night-time roosting.   Special Instructions: Keep your mobiles on silent! We recommend wearing brown, beige or clothes with long sleeves and trousers, sports shoes and a hat. Try to avoid bright colours. Bring binoculars, insect repellent, sun protection, snacks and water.  Please be prepared for possibly dusty or windy winter weather; as long as the weather conditions allow driving, the tour will not be cancelled and we will adjust the programme if necessary.   The number of participants that can join the trip is limited. If you got a spot and cannot make it, please cancel early enough, to give someone else the chance to come.      

Tracking the migration of Bar-tailed Godwits worldwide About the talk: The Bar-tailed Godwit is an iconic migratory shorebird that can be found in almost all continents. Several subspecies are distinguished, each of them has distinct migratory routes and timing of migration. Recently the status of the population of Bar-tailed Godwits Limosa lapponica wintering along the Middle East and eastern seaboard of the Indian Ocean has been resolved, showing that these birds belong to a separate subspecies, named L.l yamalensis. These birds use previously staging areas in the northwest corner of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan, and migrated to breeding areas in north-central Russia. Global tracking showed showed that the populations of different subspecies are more connected than hitherto thought and also show that these shorebirds are threatened in many ways   About the speaker: Roeland Bom is a senior scientist at the Royal NIOZ Netherlands Institute for Sea Research. His office is at the NIOZ, Texel (The Netherlands), but his prime area of interest are the intertidal mudflats of the Wadden Sea, West Africa and the Middle East. Particularly his research adventures have led him many times to the (still) pristine mudflats of Barr Al Hikman in the Sultanate of Oman. In my recent work I focus on the migratory routine of Bar-tailed Godwits wintering in West Africa and Oman and see how they cope with a rapidly changing world.  

About the speaker: Oscar Campbell, originally from Ireland, has been living in the UAE since 2006. He is a keen natural historian with a particular interest in birds. Although travelling widely across the Middle East and beyond, he returns to Ireland every year and when there, spends much of that time in Donegal. He is currently chairman of the Emirates Bird Record Committee and co-authored Butterflies of the United Arab Emirates including Northern Oman (Motivate, 2021). His current major project is working on the third edition of Field Guide to the Birds of the Middle East (Bloomsbury, to be published 2023). About the talk: Donegal is the north-westernmost county of Ireland and an area of not inconsiderable beauty, grandeur and natural history interest. This talk will introduce the natural history of Donegal, touching on aspects of its geology, climate and plant communities, with discussions of selected invertebrates and birds as well. The wonderful landscapes will be showcased and the talk concludes with a visit to Tory Island, one of the county’s most special places and, exposed 13km offshore in the north west Atlantic, Ireland’s most remote inhabited island.    

About the speaker: Mike Searle was bought up in Oman in the 1970s and started working on the geology of the Oman mountains for his PhD (1980). He continued working first with consulting groups in UAE, Musandam and across the Oman Mountains and since 1990 has had research projects throughout the Oman - UAE mountains with students and coleagues form Oxford University and elsewhere including teh Petroleum Instiute Abu Dhabi. He continues to travel to Oman every year and regards it as his second home.   About the talk: The Oman – UAE Mountains contain many spectacular geological sites, many of which are of World Heritage status. A few of these sites include the World’s largest, best exposed ophiolite complex, a thrust slice of Tethyan oceanic crust and upper mantle emplaced onto the Arabian continental margin, the Musandam peninsula where the Arabian and Iranian plates first collided, the Jebel al-Akhdar massif where numerous deeply incised wadis cuts through the entire Permian – Cenomanian shelf carbonates are superbly exposed. Other notable sites include the Worlds’ largest sheath fold beautifully exposed in 3D along Wadi Mayh, the As Sifah eclogites where the leading edge of the Arabian crust has been subducted to ca 100 km and exhumed. Spectacular fold and thrust structures occur throughout the mountains and a unique thrust slice of high-temperature granulite facies rocks in exposed in Madhah and Fujairah. Many beautifully preserved fossil sites are present throughout the mountains. With the increasing development in Oman and especially in UAE now make it imperative to preserve these geological sites and preserve them for future generations. A major programme of setting up GeoPark sites throughout Oman is now in action. This talk will cover the geology of the Oman – UAE mountains with photographic coverage covering the last 45 years.    

  Dear ENHG Members and Guests,   A nature journal is a place for the visual expression of curiosity. It can be used as a tool at the beach as well as in the desert, the mountains or in your own garden!  While drawing is a skill that can help us describe our observations, the goal of nature journaling is not to create a “pretty picture” but instead to record your experience with the natural world.    Join us as we explore a section of Saadiyat island beach using a nature journal as a tool for sharpening our skills observation and attention.    While we have daylight, we will use words, pictures and numbers in our journal pages to describe what we find on the beach. After sunset, we will gather around some tables and chairs to practice techniques of sketching, and note-taking for observation.   Molly will share examples from her own journals and offer tools and suggestions for establishing or adding to your own practice of nature journaling.     Bring a notebook or sketchbook and any tools you like to use for writing, drawing. We will have some supplies available to borrow.    About Molly: Molly Torrey Molly is an educator and artist, born in the USA and living in Abu Dhabi for the past 10 years. Whether in the mangroves, Al Wathba Wetland or Umm Al Emarat park, you can find her connecting with the natural world through the time-tested practice of keeping a nature journal. By slowing down, retraining our attention, a nature journal becomes a tool to unleash learning, curiosity, creativity and conservation. Molly is passionate about introducing people to the practice of keeping a nature journal and she is actively working to build a community of nature journalers in Abu Dhabi.    

We are delighted to resume the nurdle hunt scheduled for Saturday November 5th from 9-10 a.m together with the Saadiyat Rotana Resort & Villas.  Nurdles are tiny around 3-4 mm in diameter pre-produced plastic pieces that are harmful for the marine environment,  and the marine and terrestrial wildlife as they might be mistaken for food. Estimate how many nurdles need to be melted and shaped to form a plastic bottle? A minimum of 600. Together with Saadiyat Rotana Resorts & Villas the Natural History Group wants to raise awareness about the impacts of plastic pollution along the coast. Lets see how many nurdles we can find during our 1hour long beach walk. We hope to fill a large container with the harmfull waste.        Please bring:    -a container to collect the nurdles -a reusable water bottle  -sun hat and suncreen    

About the speaker: Dr. Dareen Almojil is a post-doctoral associate at New York University – Abu Dhabi. She is currently working with the Evolutionary Genomics laboratory at NYU. Her research is focused on the population genomics of wild Xenopus laevis and its mysterious adaptation to challenging conditions in South Africa and Western France. She obtained her master’s from James Cook University in Australia, followed by a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK where she investigated the population genetic structure and reproductive behavior of sharks to serve their conservation. During her Ph.D., she published her first book, titled: “Sharks and Rays of the Arabian/Persian Gulf”, and took part in a documentary called “Arabia’s Sharks: A journey of discovery” which was aired on Discovery channel in 2016. She is also the founder of Muthalath, a platform designed to connect STEM researchers in the region with science-related opportunities.   About the talk Scientific knowledge is lacking on marine species of economic and conservation importance, hindering their sustainable management. Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) has the potential to provide valuable insights on large (spatial and temporal) scales, by drawing on the collective experiences of those who work closely with the taxa of interest. This study explored the status of the shark population over time in four countries across eastern and southern Arabia (i.e. Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Yemen). Results indicate strong declines, with highly experienced fishermen reporting greater perceived declines (80%) in the abundance of sharks (in general), with a mean year of perceived decline starting in the late 1990s to early 2000s. For three specific taxa investigated, hammerhead sharks (e.g. Sphyrna mokarran) had the greatest mean perceived decline (80%), while even the group with the least decline (small carcharhinids) had a mean perceived decline of 50%. Management measures are urgently required in the region to ensure sustainability of historic shark fisheries that provide food security and coastal livelihoods (e.g. Yemen and Oman), and to prevent regional extinctions (e.g. hammerhead sharks). Older and more experienced fishermen who are both; witness to the greatest declines and may have local standing and influence could be valuable resources in developing more community-based sustainable fisheries, especially given the apparent lack of success of formal management measures.