The houbara population in Yemen is threatened by overhunting, overgrazing, firewood collection and motor vehicles.

An official source at ADEA said that the joint project would study the ecology and the breeding habits at houbara habitats; record basic behavioural and demographic data on Yemeni birds (display, mating, hatching success, reproductive success etc); catch and connect breeding birds with transmitters for a satellite tracking programme aimed at understanding the level of their vagrancy and taking blood/feather samples for genetic study.

He said that fieldwork had been undertaken by the National Avian Research Centre (Narc), which is part of the ADEA in Yemen since 2002. This programme will involve local tribes in the study areas. Through active collaboration with the ministry in Yemen and the local tribal population, the agency will try to ensure protection for the remaining houbara population in Yemen, he added.

The official said that despite Yemen being on the extreme southern edge of the Asian houbara's range in the Middle East, little is known about the status and the distribution of this species in this country. Literature, local interviews and preliminary studies suggest that houbara from the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen and Oman) should be considered as a single population, one of the last remaining populations of houbara in the Arabian Peninsula, he pointed out