Muscat – With an aim to preserve wildlife, the Office for Conservation of the Environment (OCE) at the Environment Authority (EA) has concluded its annual survey that monitors steppe eagles in Dhofar governorate.

An official at the EA, said, “The Office for Conservation of the Environment has concluded winter survey to monitor steppe eagles in the wilayat of Thumrait in Dhofar governorate.

“The surveys were conducted by specialists from October 2021 to March 22, 2022. Specialists conducted 84 field visits to the study sites of steppe eagles in the Hakabit area and Al Safa Farm in the Wilayat of Thumrait,” said the official.

He added, “Specialists recorded 550 steppeeagles at Al Safa Farm in the Wilayat of Thumrait on January 25, 2022, and 142 in Mardam Hakbeet on February 8, 2022.”

“The steppe eagle is considered an endangered bird globally based on the classification of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The sultanate is considered a natural stopover as a large numbers of these eagles visit various locations in Dhofar, which provides adequate food in the winter season.”

‘In 2019, we recorded 500 steppe eagles in Dhofar. But they decreased to 80 in 2020,’ OCE said, adding the reason for the decrease in numbers is the lack of food including carrion (decaying flesh of dead animals).

In an ongoing research, OCE has recently installed satellite-tracking devices on 13 steppe eagles to obtain important and accurate data and information.

The project to study the steppeeaglesis one of the projects implemented by the Environmental Conservation Office in the Governorate of Dhofar since 2018 in cooperation with ornithologists from Austria and Germany and with the support of the Anglo-OmaniSociety in London.