A project by the UB and the IRBio to preserve Egyptian vulture populations wins the sixth edition of the Delta Birding Festival
A project to improve the preservation of the Egyptian vulture -a species in regression in the Iberian Peninsula- which was launched by the Conservation Biology Group of the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the UB, has been the winner of the sixth edition of the Delta Birding Festival, a successful event that gathered more than 2,500 attendants from the 20th to the 22nd of September in Delta de lʼEbre.
This call -the only ornithological festival held in Catalonia- is a unique initiative in Spain which gathers a wide range of courses, workshops, contests, and more, and its economic aids are given to projects related to the study and conservation of birds and the environment. In this context, this year the awarded project in Delta Birding Festival has been chosen by the attendants for the first time.
A project to improve the preservation of the Egyptian vulture -a species in regression in the Iberian Peninsula- which was launched by the Conservation Biology Group of the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the UB, has been the winner of the sixth edition of the Delta Birding Festival, a successful event that gathered more than 2,500 attendants from the 20th to the 22nd of September in Delta de lʼEbre.
This call -the only ornithological festival held in Catalonia- is a unique initiative in Spain which gathers a wide range of courses, workshops, contests, and more, and its economic aids are given to projects related to the study and conservation of birds and the environment. In this context, this year the awarded project in Delta Birding Festival has been chosen by the attendants for the first time.
The Egyptian vulture is spreading around Catalonia
Improving the knowledge on the demography and conservation of the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) is the main objective of the awarded project, which was presented by the experts Catuxa Cerecedo and Maialen AzpiLlaga, from the Conservation Biology Group (UB-IRBio). This scavenger, listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), spreads from Asia to the Middle East, the Circum-Mediterranean Region and some areas in southern Sahara and the Atlantic islands such as the Canary Islands. Accidents with electricity grids, hunting, poison, the loss of natural habitat and alteration of the main feeding sources are factors that put this birdʼs survival at risk.
The peninsular population of these vultures, one of the most important worldwide, has been in regression for some years, except for those in central and eastern Catalonia, a place where these populations have been growing over the last decades. The awarded proposal is part of the global project titled Aplicació de noves technologies per a conèixer els efectes del canvi global i local de les poblacions dʼaufrany. Participants in this project are the experts Joan Real, Antonio Hernández-Matías, Santi Mañosa and Joan Pretus, from the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences and IRBio. This project is funded by Red Eléctrica de Esoaña, Fundació Catalunya-La Pedrera, and Diputació de Barcelona, and has the support from several naturalist groups, which will help knowing about the environmental and anthropic factors that determine the growth of the Catalan population of the Egyptian vulture and will provide elements for the preservation of other endangered Iberian populations.
The Delta Birding Festival is promoted by ORYX, together with the Catalan Institute of Ornithology (ICO) and Fundació Catalunya - La Pedrera (FCLP), prestigious entities dedicated to the study and conservation of birds and natural spaces. The other finalist projects in the 2019 edition focused on the preservation of the Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus), the white-faced storm petrel (Pelagodroma marina) and the Audouinʼs gull (Larus audouinii).