BEGINNING OF THE HUNTING SEASON, A PERIOD OF RISK FOR THE BONELLI'S EAGLE

With the arrival of the month of October starts a period of cinegetic activity that extends until the end of the month of February. A study made by the Equip d'Estudi de l'Àliga Perdiguera from collected data of different Spanish fauna recovery centers indicates that during the 6 months of cinegetic activity, including also the half close season of the month of August, the number of units of Bonelli's eagle died by persecution is almost the triple that during the 6 remaining months. This one is a worrisome fact that it also affects many other protected species of birds.

Although in the last years it has been possible to state in general a greater sensitivity of the hunters at the time of respecting the norm on protected species, the problem of the direct persecution by firings or poisoning continues existing. It is therefore necessary to continue working to solve this serious problem, preferably and, whenever it is possible, with the collaboration of the own hunters. Many deaths of eagles that take place fortuitously, for example during the wild boar searches, could be avoided solely planning better the days and places where they are carried out, specially if they are made near the nesting areas. Also it is necessary to follow the sensibilización tasks to be able to instil the idea of a sustainable cinegetic activity and also to request that the administration be inflexible in those cases in which the laws of protection of threatened species are not observed of a premeditaded way.

The graphic shows the percentage of died Bonelli's eagles in Spain during the decade of the 90 by direct persecution, during the 6 months of the year with cinegetic activity (blue) and the 6 without this activity (green).