The Northern Bald Ibis (*Geronticus eremita*) was once widespread across the Middle East and North Africa; by the mid-1990s, Turkey's Birecik colony on the Euphrates represented one of the last wild populations on earth, numbering in the dozens. The coin was issued partly to fund and publicize conservation efforts tied to the captive-breeding program at Birecik, which had been running since the 1970s after wild nesting pairs collapsed under hunting pressure and habitat loss.
The Birecik wild population was declared functionally extinct in 1989. This issue predates the later reintroduction attempts by nearly a decade.
The Northern Bald Ibis (*Geronticus eremita*) was once widespread across the Middle East and North Africa; by the mid-1990s, Turkey's Birecik colony on the Euphrates represented one of the last wild populations on earth, numbering in the dozens. The coin was issued partly to fund and publicize conservation efforts tied to the captive-breeding program at Birecik, which had been running since the 1970s after wild nesting pairs collapsed under hunting pressure and habitat loss.
The Birecik wild population was declared functionally extinct in 1989. This issue predates the later reintroduction attempts by nearly a decade.