From Remote Hunting Trips to Conservation: How Mohamed Al Remeithi’s Experience of the Desert Has Changed.
At 13, Mohamed Al Remeithi’s hunting trips meant venturing deep into the desert with his grandfather and uncle, carrying everything they needed to sleep, cook and survive far from roads and modern services.
Rabbits were plentiful, while houbara and karawan were harder to find. But the trips were about more than the hunt — they taught him patience, self-reliance and, above all, respect for the desert.
Decades later, Al Remeithi, now head of events at the Abu Dhabi Falconry Club, continues to practise falconry, but the experience surrounding the tradition has changed dramatically.
“When you go hunting, you have to remember that you are heading into an area without the services and conveniences 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 or spoil the natural landscape.”
Into a desert where nobody was around
Some of Al Remeithi’s earliest hunting memories take him far beyond the organised experiences available today.
He recalls travelling with his grandfather into the Empty Quarter, where they could cover 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, recalling evenings spent sitting around a fire, away from mobile phones and the conveniences of modern life.
The vehicle was there simply for transport. Everything else they needed 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, of course, the hunt.
He remembers rabbits being plentiful in the wild at the time, while houbara and karawan were harder to find.
Over the years, his hunting experiences came to include rabbits, houbara and karawan, alongside falconry and other traditional desert activities.
A very different hunting trip today
Asked what he packs for a hunting trip today, the list still sounds unmistakably traditional.
There is food and cooking equipment, bedding, clothes, coffee and tea, food for the falcon and equipment for tracking the bird. He also carries a radio to stay in contact with his companions.
But while the essentials remain much the same, the experience itself has become considerably more accessible.
Hunters no longer have to spend days travelling deep into remote desert. Today, managed reserves and organised facilities offer places where the tradition can be practised closer to home, with greater access to services and support.
For Al Remeithi, that shift is one of the most significant changes he has witnessed.
“Today, the government supports the reserves and supports the animals bred in captivity.”
The development of reserves has also made it easier for families to practise the tradition closer to home, Al Remeithi said, without having to take time away from work or their 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
Greater convenience does not necessarily mean abandoning the traditional experience, Al Remeithi said.
For those who want it, hunting can still offer an opportunity to escape modern life and spend time in the desert.
He said part of the appeal is being able to experience nature in its traditional form, rather than turning the activity solely into a modern recreational outing.
For Al Remeithi, the responsibility that comes with entering the desert has always been an essential part of the experience — and one of the lessons hunting has taught him.
A hunter should not leave rubbish behind or damage the landscape, Al Remeithi said.
That principle has since 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, as well as which species they can hunt.
Hunters must avoid protected areas, roads, residential areas and other restricted locations, while taking care not to disturb wildlife or damage vegetation.
Al Remeithi believes the growth of managed hunting reserves has helped make the tradition safer, more accessible and more sustainable.
“The state is not falling short in supporting this sport,” he said, pointing to organised competitions, hunting reserves, captive breeding programmes and other forms of support.
For Al Remeithi, that support means there is little reason today for hunters to take unnecessary risks by travelling to places where hunting is not permitted.
Protecting the bird at the heart of falconry
The transformation of hunting has also gone hand in hand with a growing emphasis on conservation.
The houbara has long been at the heart of falconry, but protecting its populations has required a major shift towards captive breeding and release programmes.
Ali Al Shamsi, a project manager at the International Fund for Houbara Conservation, said the organisation now produces around 90,000 to 100,000 houbara each year across its centres in the UAE and abroad, with birds subsequently released into their natural habitats.
According to Al Shamsi, the UAE’s houbara conservation efforts began in 1977, when the late Sheikh Zayed launched the project. The National Avian Research Centre was later established in Sweihan in 1989 to research, breed and release houbara.
For Al Remeithi, conservation and the continuation of falconry are not competing priorities but increasingly interconnected parts of the same tradition.
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.
What has not changed
The equipment may have changed. The journeys may be shorter. The rules may be stricter. But Al Remeithi’s reasons for continuing to hunt remain rooted in the experience he had as a boy.
He still prepares his provisions, cares for his falcon and heads into the desert. The difference is that today’s hunter has more infrastructure around him — and a greater responsibility to understand the rules governing the land and its wildlife.
For someone who began 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 so that it can endure.
