Protected species
The Spanish government approved, on 16th February, a plan of action for Spain against the illegal traffic and furtive hunting of protected species.
This will help in the continued fight to save such threatened species as rhinoceros, elephants , tigers and many others.
Closer to home, help is requested for the limited Black Vulture population of Andalucía, estimated at some 400 pairs. Poisoned bait remains a problem for these carrion-eating birds, as, of course, does habitat destruction. A ‘new’ species of vulture to be found occasionally in Spanish territory these days is Rüppell’s Griffon Vulture, and one example appeared amongst the resident Griffons at the feeding station near Alcoy, in August 2017. It was captured and given a radio transmitter, whereupon the bird found its way via the south of Albacete to the Sierra Morena and so on down into Cádiz province.
A brief excursion into the area of the Coto Doñana followed, but then the bird appeared to return to the Straits of Gibraltar, and all signals were lost.
It isn’t known if it then crossed into Morocco, where more of its kind reside.
At last we are seeing on our television screens exhortations to stop using plastic bags.
The discovery of a dead whale, the stomach of which contained a vast quantity of plastic, was indeed a sad sight, and it has long been known the turtles suffer terribly from mistaking plastic bags for their chosen food – jellyfish.
Birds too get caught up in the mass of pollution and contamination that we chuck into our seas and rivers.
So think twice before you accept plastic bags, and try to find alternatives if you can!