From wild desert hunts at 13 to strict rules of today: Abu Dhabi falconer's story

At 13, Mohamed Al Remeithi's hunting trips meant heading deep into the desert with his grandfather and uncle, carrying everything they needed to sleep, cook and survive away from roads and services.

Rabbits were plentiful, houbara and karawan were harder to find, and the lessons were as much about patience and respect for the desert as they were about the hunt.

Decades later, Al Remeithi, now head of events at Abu Dhabi Falconry Club, still practises falconry, but the experience surrounding the tradition has changed dramatically.

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“When you go hunting, you have to keep in mind that you are going on a hunting trip to an area that lacks all the services you are used to,” Al Remeithi said, recalling his early experiences.

“You learn patience, and you learn how to deal with nature. At the same time, you are responsible for it; you don't leave your rubbish, you don't spoil the natural landscape.”

Some of Al Remeithi's earliest memories of hunting take him far beyond the organised hunting experiences available today.

He recalls travelling with his grandfather into the Empty Quarter, where they could travel hundreds of kilometres without seeing another person.

There were no modern comforts to rely on.

“You sleep on the ground, in the open,” he said, describing the experience of sitting around a fire and being away from mobile phones and the conveniences of modern life.

The only vehicle was there for transport. Everything else had to be carried with them.

For Al Remeithi, there was little to fear in such an isolated environment.

“For us Bedouins, there was nothing that scared us, because we are from nature and nature is part of us,” he said.

The reward was the experience itself, and the hunt.

He remembers rabbits being plentiful in the wild at the time, while finding houbara and karawan was more difficult.

His hunting experience eventually came to include rabbits, houbara and karawan, alongside falconry and other traditional activities.

When asked what he prepares before a hunting trip today, and the list still sounds unmistakably traditional.

There is food and cooking equipment, bedding, clothes, coffee and tea, food for the falcon and equipment to track the bird. He also carries a radio to stay in contact with his companions.

But the experience has become considerably more accessible.

Instead of having to travel deep into remote desert for days, hunters today can use managed reserves and other organised facilities that allow them to practise the tradition closer to home.

Al Remeithi sees that as one of the most significant changes.

“Today the government supports the reserves and supports the animals bred in captivity."

The development of reserves means families can practise the activity closer to where they live, he said, without it disrupting work or children's schooling.

“You can practise this sport close to your home or close to your area, without it disrupting your work or your children’s studies, and then you return.”

The desert remains part of the experience

That greater convenience does not necessarily mean abandoning the traditional experience, Al Remeithi said.

For those who want it, hunting can still mean getting away from modern life and spending time in the desert.

He described the appeal as being able to experience nature in its traditional form, rather than simply turning the activity into a modern recreational outing.

And for him, the responsibility that comes with entering the desert has always been part of the lesson.

A hunter should not leave rubbish behind or damage the landscape, he said.

That principle has now become part of a much more formal system of environmental rules governing hunting in Abu Dhabi.

From family tradition to a regulated sport

The rules surrounding hunting today are far stricter than they were when Al Remeithi first accompanied his grandfather.

In Abu Dhabi's open wilderness areas, traditional falconry is regulated through permits and restrictions governing where and when hunters can operate and what they can hunt.

Hunters must avoid protected areas, roads, residential areas and other restricted locations, while ensuring they do not disturb wildlife or damage vegetation.

Al Remeithi believes the growth of managed hunting reserves has helped make the tradition both safer and more accessible.

“The state is not falling short in supporting this sport,” he said, pointing to organised competitions, hunting reserves, captive breeding and other forms of support.

For him, that support means there is little reason today for hunters to take unnecessary risks by travelling to places where they should not be hunting.

Protecting the bird at the heart of falconry

The transformation of hunting has also been closely linked to conservation.

The houbara has long been central to falconry, but protecting its populations has required a major shift towards captive breeding and release programmes.

Ali Al Shamsi, project manager at the International Fund for Houbara Conservation, said the organisation produces around 90,000 to 100,000 houbara annually across its centres in the UAE and abroad, with birds released into their natural habitats.

The UAE's houbara conservation effort began in 1977, when the late Sheikh Zayed launched the project, with the National Avian Research Centre later established in Sweihan in 1989 to research, breed and release houbara, according to Al Shamsi.

For Al Remeithi, conservation and the continuation of falconry are not competing ideas. They are increasingly intertwined.

The experience he inherited from his grandfather was about understanding the desert and living with it rather than simply taking from it. Today, that same philosophy exists alongside licences, protected areas, managed reserves and captive-breeding programmes.

The equipment may have changed. The journey may be shorter. The rules may be stricter. But Al Remeithi's description of why he continues to hunt is rooted in the same experience he had as a boy.

He still prepares his provisions, takes care of his falcon and heads into the desert. The difference is that today's hunter has more infrastructure around him — and a much greater responsibility to understand the rules governing the land and wildlife.

For someone who started at 13 by following his grandfather into one of the world's most remote deserts, that may be the biggest evolution of all: the tradition has changed in order to survive.

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