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20-02-2019, 01:41 PM
Courtesy of Diario de Fuerteventura
The guirre (or Canary Egyptian vulture), one of the most dangerous threatened raptors in Europe, has tripled its population in the last two decades, in a recovery in which biologists consider decisive the result of the measures taken to protect it with the help of the European Life program.
The Biological Station of Doñana (CSIC) and the universities of Amsterdam, Balearic Islands, Lund (Sweden) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria publish in the journal "Journal of Applied Ecology" the results of the measures implemented by the Life program between 2004 and 2008 to protect this bird, one of the most emblematic of the islands.
The study recalls that, in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, the last two redoubts of this variety of Egyptian vulture, only 21 breeding pairs were counted in 1998. Two decades later, they are already 67.
"These are hopeful results for this bird, which until recently had rather gloomy prospects for the future", explains the first signatory of the article Jaume Adriá Badia, researcher attached to Balearic and Lund universities and the Doñana station.
The authors of the work remind that the guirre "went from being abundant in a good part of the Canary archipelago in the middle of the XX century to being restricted in a single population divided between Fuerteventura and Lanzarote in 1998", which led to the articulation of protection measures, supported as of 2004 by the European Union.
The Life program focused on the guirre focused on counteracting its two main causes of death: accidents with power lines and the ingestion of poisoned carrion.
To this end, corrective measures were taken on power lines to make them safer for birds and social awareness campaigns were undertaken to reduce the use of poisons.
Since then, indicate the results of this work, there have been few deaths due to the collision and coupling in power lines (there has been two cases between 1998 and 2006 to none between 2007 and 2017) and mortality from poisonings has decreased drastic (has dropped from 21 cases to only three).
"This study shows that environmental education and the awareness of the population can be vital to combat the current biodiversity crisis, and conservation measures have resulted in an increase in survival, especially in the adult fraction of the population. population, which is precisely the most determining parameter when it comes to guaranteeing the viability of these populations, "adds another of the authors Ana Sanz Aguilar, a researcher at the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies (University of the Balearic Islands-CSIC).
"Comprehensive" monitoring for 20 years
One of the novelties of this study has been the use of a statistical method that includes parameters that are usually not taken into account, such as the loss of rings.
"We have been carrying out intensive and exhaustive monitoring of this population in Fuerteventura for more than 20 years, and the collection of detailed long-term individual monitoring data has allowed us to apply more complex statistical analyses, which in turn have generated results that allow us to better understand the ecology and demography of this and other long-lived species ", says the director of the guirre monitoring project, José Antonio Donázar, from the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC).
The work also highlights the importance of carrying out long-term monitoring of conservation measures.
Currently, due to their cost, these follow-ups are difficult to maintain. "However, in this case, a monitoring campaign of more than 20 years has allowed us to evaluate the efficiency of a Life project beyond its four years of implementation, and such monitoring and evaluation, if done regularly, would allow us to understand which conservation measures have good results and which ones do not, "adds Sanz Aguilar.
EDIT: Correction of GoogleTranslate. Thanks everyone.
The guirre (or Canary Egyptian vulture), one of the most dangerous threatened raptors in Europe, has tripled its population in the last two decades, in a recovery in which biologists consider decisive the result of the measures taken to protect it with the help of the European Life program.
The Biological Station of Doñana (CSIC) and the universities of Amsterdam, Balearic Islands, Lund (Sweden) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria publish in the journal "Journal of Applied Ecology" the results of the measures implemented by the Life program between 2004 and 2008 to protect this bird, one of the most emblematic of the islands.
The study recalls that, in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, the last two redoubts of this variety of Egyptian vulture, only 21 breeding pairs were counted in 1998. Two decades later, they are already 67.
"These are hopeful results for this bird, which until recently had rather gloomy prospects for the future", explains the first signatory of the article Jaume Adriá Badia, researcher attached to Balearic and Lund universities and the Doñana station.
The authors of the work remind that the guirre "went from being abundant in a good part of the Canary archipelago in the middle of the XX century to being restricted in a single population divided between Fuerteventura and Lanzarote in 1998", which led to the articulation of protection measures, supported as of 2004 by the European Union.
The Life program focused on the guirre focused on counteracting its two main causes of death: accidents with power lines and the ingestion of poisoned carrion.
To this end, corrective measures were taken on power lines to make them safer for birds and social awareness campaigns were undertaken to reduce the use of poisons.
Since then, indicate the results of this work, there have been few deaths due to the collision and coupling in power lines (there has been two cases between 1998 and 2006 to none between 2007 and 2017) and mortality from poisonings has decreased drastic (has dropped from 21 cases to only three).
"This study shows that environmental education and the awareness of the population can be vital to combat the current biodiversity crisis, and conservation measures have resulted in an increase in survival, especially in the adult fraction of the population. population, which is precisely the most determining parameter when it comes to guaranteeing the viability of these populations, "adds another of the authors Ana Sanz Aguilar, a researcher at the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies (University of the Balearic Islands-CSIC).
"Comprehensive" monitoring for 20 years
One of the novelties of this study has been the use of a statistical method that includes parameters that are usually not taken into account, such as the loss of rings.
"We have been carrying out intensive and exhaustive monitoring of this population in Fuerteventura for more than 20 years, and the collection of detailed long-term individual monitoring data has allowed us to apply more complex statistical analyses, which in turn have generated results that allow us to better understand the ecology and demography of this and other long-lived species ", says the director of the guirre monitoring project, José Antonio Donázar, from the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC).
The work also highlights the importance of carrying out long-term monitoring of conservation measures.
Currently, due to their cost, these follow-ups are difficult to maintain. "However, in this case, a monitoring campaign of more than 20 years has allowed us to evaluate the efficiency of a Life project beyond its four years of implementation, and such monitoring and evaluation, if done regularly, would allow us to understand which conservation measures have good results and which ones do not, "adds Sanz Aguilar.
EDIT: Correction of GoogleTranslate. Thanks everyone.
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