And it happened again. With sadness and indignation, researchers, naturalists and volunteers who collaborate with Life Bonelli, received the bad news of the electrocution of one of the specimen of the Project to which we are dedicated with great effort and hope. This time the victim was Oteo, a beautiful male introduced in the Montaña Alavesa in 2015.
This past December 10, we managed to capture and tag the first Bonelli’s Eagle wild-caught female in the southeast of the Madrid Community. Previously, another three wild-caught specimen had been marked within the Life Bonelli Project, supported by the European Union and in collaboration with several NGOs, entities and companies contributing to the recuperation of this species. However, in former occasions they had been all males.
On December 2, we presented the progress of the Life Bonelli Project during the VIII Ornithology Seminar of the University Complutense Madrid, organized by SEO-Alectoris. The main objective was to explain the global Project dedicated to the recuperation of the most vulnerable populations of the Bonelli’s Eagle, supported by the European Community. For reasons of proximity, we also intended to provide special information about the development of the Project in the Community of Madrid.
With the aim of raising awareness about Life Bonelli, we installed an informative signboard in the Western Mountains of Madrid. As you know, this is one of the areas for action of the Project to strengthen or create populations of the endangered species Bonelli’s Eagle in various autonomous communities. This is a joint effort of the Madrid Community and GREFA in order to inform the people who visit this area about the work of the Project in progress.
The Life Bonelli Project includes four teams dedicated to the release of birds (Mallorca, Madrid, Navarra and Álava). Their flow of ideas and shared knowledge is of great value and we are trying to foster it through common visits to the release areas of the Bonelli’s Eagle like the one that took place this past 27/28 of October in Navarra and Álava. In this way, around twenty members of the four project teams could share two days of observation, talks and an environment of friendship.