Last October, the 2009 annual conference of the Raptor Research Foundation, an international entity  for research and conservation of the raptors with headquarters in USA, was celebrated in Pitlochry (Scotland). The congress gathered together some of the world’s most prestigious scientists that study the raptors and its conservation, as well as agents of international entities implicated in the management and the conservation of raptors. The congress was an assistance success, with more than 300 participants from 36 different countries gathered during 6 days to debate on different problematic and proposals for the conservation of raptors all over the world.

The Equip de Biologia de la Conservació – Àliga Perdiguera of the University of Barcelona exposed 3 oral presentations: the first one entitled “Population viability analysis of the Bonelli’s eagle: Modeling the whole western European metapopulation” was conducted by the Dr. Antonio Hernández-Matías; the second one about “Modeling the electrocution risk of raptors on powerlines and evaluating mortality rates at corrected pylons” was conducted by the Dr. Albert Tintó, and the third one, about the use of the territory and the habitat selection of the Bonelli’s eagle in Catalonia, “Home range and habitat selection in Bonelli’s eagle (Aquila fasciata): Implications for conservation” was presented by the Dr. Joan Real.

Dr. Luis Palma also presented 2 works about the Portuguese Bonelli’s eagles that nest in trees: an oral presentation “An exception to the rule: the fast growing tree-nesting Bonelli’s eagle (Aquila fasciata) population of Southern Portugal” and a poster “An integrated conservation project for tree-nesting Bonelli’s eagles (Aquila fasciata)”. Finally there was also an oral presentation about the monitoring with video cameras of several Bonelli’s eagle nests from Barcelona province by the Natural Parks Service of the Diputació de Barcelona “Nest cameras as a tool for habitat and population management of Bonelli’s eagle (Aquila fasciata)”. You can access to the congress program with summaries of the introductions in the link:

http://www.raptorresearchfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/2009_program.pdf