From Suda to Tony, a seed of life for Great Indian Bustards

Suda, a three-year-old antheral bustard astatine the Ramdevra captive breeding centre successful Pokhran, successful the eastbound portion of Jaisalmer district, was chosen for the experiment. He was trained to “mate” with a dummy bird, and his sperm was transported to the Sam captive breeding centre successful occidental Jaisalmer, astir 3 hours away, to impregnate Tony, a five-year-old pistillate bustard there.

Since 2019, these 2 centres person been the crushed zero for India’s semipermanent GIB betterment project, wherever scientists from WII and Rajasthan wood section person hand-reared 45 GIBs truthful far.

“To cod Suda’s sperm, we utilized a dummy vertebrate to simulate mating. Once it was felt that it was acclimatised properly, it was made to mate with the dummy and its sperm was collected, stored and safely transported to the Sam facility,” Sutirtha Dutta, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) idiosyncratic and task investigator, explained.

WII scientists transported the sperm successful the 3rd week of September. Bustards person a speedy gestation period, ranging from a fewer days to a maximum of six weeks. Tony responded good to the insemination, and she laid eggs wrong 3 days. One of the eggs hatched connected October 16, starring to the commencement of the

first GIB chick done assisted reproduction.

Artificial insemination, Dutta explained, is utile for 2 cardinal reasons. One, earthy mating has its limitations, helium said, arsenic the antheral and pistillate bustard tin beryllium successful their breeding phase, oregon successful heat, during antithetic periods of time. On an average, a pistillate bustard lays eggs lone erstwhile oregon doubly and the endurance complaint is poor, astatine astir 60 per cent.

Second, artificial insemination helps to summation familial diversity. “We person avoided transferring the captive bred birds betwixt the 2 centres to forestall them from stress. With the assistance of artificial insemination, we person an further instrumentality and it volition assistance summation familial diversity. This volition assistance them yet erstwhile they are released successful the wild,” said Dutta.

Ashish Vyas, lawman conservator of wood (wildlife), Jaisalmer, said that with this technique, they tin besides usage cryopreservation to assistance augment fertility rates.

The GIB taxon is connected the brink of extinction, with an estimated colonisation of lone 150 ranging successful the wild, mostly successful Rajasthan. The numbers person plummeted implicit the years, owing to factors similar hunting, nonaccomplishment of situation and, much recently, collision with powerfulness lines.

There is simply a “founder population” of 45 GIBs astatine the 2 captive breeding centres. Of these, 32 were hatched from eggs collected from the wild. The remaining 13 were calved to those mated successful captivity astatine these centres.

As portion of the eventual re-wilding process of the captive bustards, aviaries volition beryllium built astatine the 2 centres for their brushed release. WII and Rajasthan program to merchandise the archetypal fewer bustards successful the chaotic successful the 2nd fractional of 2025, Vyas said.

The technological rationale for creating a “founder population” is to person a minimum viable colonisation and to support the familial variability of the root population. A minimum of 20 big birds, including 15 females, is needed to found a minimum viable colonisation successful captivity.

Prior to the insemination process, WII scientists visited the International Fund for Houbara Bustard (IHFC) installation successful Abu Dhabi, to larn astir assisted reproduction. The centre began captive breeding of houbara bustards successful 1977. “We had to commencement de novo. The Abu Dhabi centre besides sent their experts to India to impart training. The intent was to recognize the subject and larn the close techniques,” Dutta said.

Though a agelong leap distant from restoring the glory days of the ample terrestrial bird, the occurrence of this experimentation marks an important measurement successful restoring their population.