Dear Tweeters,

In Saudi Arabia, the Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur) definitely qualifies under cult status, although the locals would not like to hear themselves described as adherents to any cult, with one obvious exception.

Every September, I would head out repeatedly to look for the first flock of migrant Turtle Doves to reach Yanbu, but the Saudi hunters virtually always knew of this arrival before I did. Various books describe the species as an abundant migrant there, but I suspect that it will be shot to extinction within the next decade or so, or at least to the point of extirpation through that part of the Eurasian continent lying north of Arabia. One little island in the southern Red Sea is the center of an annual frenzy of snaring, trapping, shooting, and even bird-liming for this species. It was once estimated that the total number of Turtle Doves destroyed on this one island is equivalent to the number of young fledged in all of eastern Germany during the preceding breeding season.

The Arabic word for Turtle Dove is gumri (that is only a near-equivalent to the pronunciation). I learned a little rhyme from the gumri hunters: "Gumri al-yumri." They would always chuckle and act chagrined when I asked them to explain. Apparently it has two meanings, one of which is that they will love to shoot gumri throughout their lives. I think gumri is also a term of endearment for a girlfriend, which is another item of cult fascination for the obsessive/repressed men there. In any case, they are very quick to dismiss any of the other local species of doves. They want to shoot and eat gumri.

Falcons are also cult birds in Arabia. They are revered and sought out as status symbols. I never identified a falcon larger than a Northern Hobby there, because most of the Sakers, Lanners, and Peregrine/Barbary Falcons end up wearing jesses.

The hunters' favorite prey for falconry is also a cult species: the Houbara Bustard. These birds are now quite rare, since the falconers augment their effective range with four-wheel-drive SUV's.

Finally, the Roller is a bit of a cult bird, too. The Old Testament says that it's not kosher to eat the Hoopoe, which is often considered a relative of the Roller. Muslims have virtually the identical food scruples as the Jews--but the Roller is an irresistible target for Arab hunters. They believe that the gall bladder of the Roller is an aphrodisiac. During fall migration you can pick up lots of electric-blue feathers blowing in the desert wind. Perhaps this explains why Saudi Arabia has one of the highest birth rates in the world...

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch



---------------------------------
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20020905/3ca1bc5b/attachment.htm