Ginés Donaire I Jaén (EFE) Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas.
The Ministry of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy of the Junta has launched a reintroduction plan for the red kite. Which is part of the necrophagous bird recovery plan. It started two years ago with the release of several pairs of kites from Mallorca, the Community of Madrid and also from Zaragoza.
The Group for the Rehabilitation of the Native Fauna and its Habitat, GREFA, has carried out in recent days the marking with GPS transmitters of seven red kite chicks belonging to the three pairs of the species. That have been formed thanks to the releases of specimens that have been carried out in recent years.
“The birth and GPS marking of these seven chickens is a complete success for the times that are usually handled in projects for the reintroduction or population reinforcement of threatened fauna, since it is something that we have achieved only two years after the start of the releases of red kites in Cazorla”, Ernesto Álvarez, president of GREFA, told EFE.
conservation associations
The releases are carried out with the collaboration of GREFA, a conservation association specializing in the recovery of threatened species. And especially of birds of prey, with more than forty years of work in this line.
When the red kite chicks that have been fitted with the GPS transmitter leave their respective nests, their movements can be followed in detail. And thus obtain a large amount of information about their juvenile dispersal routes. As well as the areas that in the future they will choose to settle and raise.
This monitoring, which will be carried out thanks to the collaboration of the company ACCIONA Energía in the project, will also serve to find out other details about the ecology and conservation problems of the species. Threatened by factors such as poisoned baits or electrocutions, among others.
To date, 74 red kites have been released in the Cazorla, Segura y las Villas natural park. Thanks to the joint work of the Junta de Andalucía and GREFA.
acclimatization phase
The most recent of these releases took place on June 21. Specifically, 17 red kites that have spent several months in a closed facility, called cage-hacking, in the natural park. In order to acclimatize to the area of this protected space where they were going to be released. And also to strengthen the socialization process between them.
After the door of the hacking-cage was opened and the 17 red kites that lived inside began to fly free, a new group of specimens of the species, made up of 14 birds, was introduced the same day into the enclosure. . And he currently occupies it.
This new group, to which more red kites will be added soon to a minimum of twenty, now begin their acclimatization phase until next autumn. When it will also proceed to its final release.
“Now it is more important than ever that the support of the organizations and entities that collaborate in the project be maintained and strengthened,” says Álvarez. The president of GREFA recalls that the work to recover endangered species such as the red kite requires continuous and long-term efforts. EFE