Two Bonelli's eagles, very endangered species, killed in the Southwest

• The prefecture of Occitania announced this Wednesday the death of two young eagles of Bonelli, poached in the Gers and the Landes last November.
• In 2019, only 38 pairs of these raptors remained, protected by a national action plan that has already made it possible to increase the population.
• A specialist explains to 20 Minutes how the two birds, born in Gard and Hérault, could die far from their place of origin.

The corpses, riddled with lead pellets, were discovered a few days apart, last November. But the announcement was made only on Tuesday, after the investigation by the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB, ex-ONCFS). Two young Bonelli eagles were killed during the hunting season, near palombières, in the south of the Gers and in the neighboring Landes. Acts punishable by two years' imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros. Several complaints against X are under investigation for destruction of protected species.

Because this bird with a wingspan of 1.60 m, a little larger than a buzzard, is one of the most endangered raptors in France, with 38 pairs counted in 2019 (compared to around 800 in Spain, a figure declining in recent decades). "It is a species that benefits from a national action plan (PNA)", explains Olivier Scher of the Conservatory of natural areas of Languedoc-Roussillon (CEN-LR).

22 couples in 2002, 38 in 2019

This specialist precisely manages the current PNA, with which other organizations such as the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Bird Protection League (LPO) are associated, and which runs until 2023. These measures launched by the State have enabled the increase in the French population of Bonelli's eagles, of which there were only 22 pairs left in 2002. But the species remains extremely fragile.

The animals killed this fall, banded and equipped with a GPS tag, were born in spring 2019 in Gard and Hérault. Present throughout the Mediterranean area, Aquila Fasciata (its scientific name) lives in France on an arc drawn between the Gard and the Ardèche in the north and the Pyrénées-Orientales in the south. But if the species is sedentary, with couples formed for life, the young (one to two per year and per couple) are on the move.

Piiiiimpon piiiiiiinpon! I write a text on Bonelli's Eagle. I attack a sentence "the beautiful red coat of his birth will be gradually" pic.twitter.com/wmvJw4jQXD

"They will leave adult territory in August-September and live an erratic life for three or four years, before returning to their area of ​​origin to try to form a couple, explains Olivier Scher. Young people are looking for game-rich territories, without adults, to learn to hunt, to feed. We have the case of a raptor who went to Algeria, before returning. "

The two Bonelli eagles killed in the fall in the Gers and Landes were not so lucky… Their case will no doubt be studied during an international congress at the end of September in Montpellier, the first in ten years. But if poaching remains a scourge (probably underestimated) for these birds, the first cause of death remains electrocution. The PNA also includes discussions with Enedis to try to limit the damage.

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• Aquitaine
• hunters
• Poaching
• Bird
• biodiversity