UNAIR NEWS – International competition “Wings of KKB: Selangor International Bird Race” named UNAIR students as the first place winner for university category. The team consisted of Gavrila Amadea, Happy Ferdiansyah, and Fitriah NH. All of them were active students from Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FKH) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) .

The competition was held on April 23-24 in Kuala Kubu Bharu, Selangor, Malaysia. The participants were from many countries, such as Malaysia, Cambodia, the UK, India, Holland and Indonesia.

The judging of bird watching competition was by watching the bird species based on their morphological characteristics. It was held in Kuala Kubu Bharu with 10 check points. The participants had to be able to identify the birds in the right time and place. The winner was based on the number of species found.

“There were 10 check points in two days. The observations can be done anywhere, and it can be done 24 hours,” Gavrila said.

Helping in Data Collection

One of the objectives of this competition was to collect data, to see the bird spreading and the population.

“What interesting is, we could know where the birds were from, we could identify them. We could know various species of birds in other regions,” she added.

Last year, Gavrila and her team joined a similar competition and got third place. They have competed in Bali Birdwatching Race (BBR), Birdwatching Cangar held by East Java Forestry Agency and also Birdwatching Baluran.

“This competitions indirectly helped the process of birds data collection and their spread as they were held by national conservational parks. So they also held them to record,” she said.

According to Gavrila, birdwatching is important to introduce the biological diversity to others, especially other countries. Gavrila hoped that the community can preserve the diversity. Through competition in Selangor, Gavrila also realized diversity possessed by Indonesia.

“Globally, from the bird spreading, we can understand the bird disease spreading. As avian flu also carried by bird spreading and they migrated. Disease control through wildlife is quite difficult to do. At least we can identify the disease carried by the birds,” Gavrilla said on the importance of bird identifications. (*)

Author : Binti Q. Masruroh
Editor    : Nuri Hermawan