Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita)

This critically endangered species was reduced to 50 breeding pairs in 1999; its range was confined to North Africa, breeding only in Morocco. Until the seventeenth century it enjoyed a broader distribution in Asia Minor and Europe, where Eskrich found it in the Jura Mountains. He portrayed it one-third lifesize. Recently, conservationists have boosted populations, attempting to re-establish the birds in Europe by flying with them on their miraculously-remembered migration routes in an ultra-light aircraft. Several years ago, seven birds appeared in Palmyra, Syria, after having been extinct there for decades, although the country’s civil war has put these individuals at even higher risk.