BEGINNING OF THE RADIO TRACKING OF PAIRS OF BONELLI’S EAGLE IN THE PRIORAT (TARRAGONA)

The Equip de Biologia de la Conservació – Àliga Perdiguera has started this February the works of radio tracking of 3 pairs of Bonelli’s Eagle of the Priorat, region of Tarragona where the species has one of the populations with a better condition of conservation and with pairs with closer adjacent territories. Precisely, the effect that the possible intra-specific competition can have over the eagles and its way of exploiting the territories and over its behaviour is one of the parameters of greatest interest of this study. Another interesting matter is knowing the use of the territory and the habitat selection by the eagles in this agricultural area of Catalunya. The information obtained will be compared with the data of a similar territory of the province of Tarragona where an eagle has been radio tracked for one year and, especially, with the territories of the Barcelona province that have very different characteristics. Finally the study may also allow to watch the effect over the eagles of the sudden change that the Priorat is suffering by the considerable increase of the human pressure over the territory.

This work is in a research project conferred by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología to the Equip de Biologia de la Conservació – Àliga perdiguera of the Universitat de Barcelona. The Equip wishes to thank the facilities given by the Parc Natural del Montsant to do the tasks of marking and putting the radio transmitters to the eagles, also the technical support of the Subdirección General de Conservación de la Biodiversidad del Ministerio de Medio Ambiente and the collaboration of entities like the Institut per la Conservació dels Rapinyaires (ICRA) and, especially, the Centre Excursionista de Capçanes.