Conserving the Iberian Lynx and the Imperial Eagle
Habitat Perditos aims to foster and preserve the different habitats in Vale de Perditos that partridges and rabbits, prey of Iberian lynx and imperial eagles, need to survive and successfully reproduce. A partnership with ANPC - National Association of Rural Landowners, Game Management and Biodiversity.
The most structuring interventions in the habitats involve the installation of a multiplicity of feeding grounds, intended to provide food, nesting sites and refuge for the prey species, but also benefiting many other species present in the ecosystem, promoting a mosaic of habitats and enhancing the ecotone effect.
Grasses and legumes are sown every year, in extreme plots or in consociation, which guarantee a greater and more regular availability of food, installed in carefully chosen locations to maximize the effects for the fauna.
In environments like the Alentejo, access to water is also a critical factor. Therefore, under this conservation project, another priority is the cleaning of water lines and the maintenance of a network of natural water points and small dams. In addition, a network of 272 feeders and 120 artificial water troughs has been installed - which help to make it possible to increase prey populations, ensuring food and water availability throughout the species' life cycle. Together, the mosaic vegetation and dense network of water points also provide the discontinuities essential to reduce the risk and spread of fires.
All these tasks are carried out by a team of managers, forest resource guards, and rural workers assigned to the hunting areas, who are also responsible for carrying out surveillance and monitoring work, especially directed at rabbit and partridge populations, which provides detailed information on the evolution of populations.
There is also a photo-trapping network in place permanently which allows the existing populations in Vale de Perditos to be monitored and the occurrence of new species to be detected, as was the case with the dispersing Iberian lynx that came to this area.
All this work has scientific supervision, and this initiative is an example of good management and collaboration with national and foreign scientific institutions, focusing on best practices and knowledge, and making the areas under consideration available for the development of research, demonstration, dissemination, and awareness actions.
MAIN RESULTS
Vale de Perditos adds up a remarkable set of results over the last four years in terms of conservation of Natural Capital, of which we highlight:
- Release, by ICNF, of a breeding pair of Iberian lynx;
- Constant presence of an imperial eagle couple in the last two years, in hunting actions and courtship rituals, which culminated in the construction and occupation of a nest;
- Confirmed and successful nesting of one pair of golden eagle and two pairs of Bonelli's eagle;
- Constant presence and use of the area by several specimens in hunting behavior and/or in dispersal of imperial eagles, golden eagles, and Bonelli's eagles, among a great diversity of other diurnal and nocturnal birds of prey;
- Confirmed presence of a dispersing Iberian lynx (a specimen released elsewhere that remained for 10 months in Vale de Perditos);
- Regular presence of other rare species with high conservation status, such as the black stork or the wildcat, among many others;
- High density of wild rabbit (3 to 5 rabbits/ha) and partridges (2.3 partridges/ha), ensuring great food availability throughout the year;
- Significant increase in breeding turtle dove population and resident wood pigeon populations;
- Maintenance of a mosaic landscape, with high resilience, ecological value and carrying capacity for a wide range of species;
- Maintenance and conservation of an area with excellent conditions for the natural recolonization or reintroduction of the Iberian lynx;
- Total absence of fires;
- Maintenance of five jobs in an area with high human desertification.
It is expected that the Habitat Perditos project will continue in the coming years and that the excellent results achieved so far can not only be maintained, but also strengthened, particularly in relation to the Iberian lynx, with the establishment of breeders, having the area scale and habitat and prey conditions compatible with the presence of several breeding females.
With the release of a breeding pair of Iberian lynx and the regular presence of a third specimen, and taking into account the quality of the territory and its location in an interface area between existing nuclei in the Guadiana Valley and Spain, it is expected that the reproduction of this species can occur in the short term.
SDG
Habitat Perditos is aligned with two of the SDGs of greatest strategic relevance for Bondalti, SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, by creating skilled and permanent jobs in a depressed area, and also contributing strongly to the local socio-economy; and SDG 15 - Protect Earth Life, by the very action of recovery and conservation of local Biodiversity.
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