Landmann doubts that the northern bald ibis was ever truly native north of the Alps. “It is highly likely that the waldrapp formerly occurred only in the south of Central Europe for a short time, due to a warming climate, as is usual for highly mobile animals,” Landmann says. He maintains that historical sources supposedly depicting waldrapps actually show red-billed choughs, an alpine species of crows.

“We want to integrate the waldrapp into a modern landscape that has been created by humans for diverse uses,” says the project’s founder.

Fritz refutes the notion that waldrapps were never firmly established in central Europe, noting that the scant 16th- and 17th-century records that do exist reflect a wide distribution. He says his project will help scientists better understand the waldrapp’s life history and will lay the groundwork for a safe future for the species beyond Morocco.

Lars Lachmann, chief scientist at the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union — Germany’s largest bird and nature protection organization, with 620,000 members — says he sees the Waldrapp Project as a “borderline case” when it comes to meeting IUCN’s criteria for reintroduction. But, he added, “Due to the worldwide extreme rarity and the attractiveness of the species, it also is possible to support this program from a nature conservation perspective.”

Matthias Kestenholz of the Swiss Ornithological Institute thinks that establishing a wild and independently viable bald ibis population north of the Alps could act as “valuable reinsurance for the species threatened with extinction in Morocco.“ He points out, however, that such an initiative is only possible because of special EU funds and private backers. His institute finds it hard enough to protect the 50 high-priority bird species in Switzerland, which are “urgently dependent on support so that they do not die out, as the bald ibis once did.“

Fritz sees the meaning of his work in a more future-oriented approach to conservation: “We do not want to simply recreate some sort of unspoiled nature from the Middle Ages,” he says. “We want to integrate the waldrapp into a modern landscape that has been created by humans for diverse uses.”

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