When red kites were reintroduced to England more than 30 years ago, young birds from thriving populations were brought to Spain. Now the carrion-eating raptor is doing so well that the English chicks, of distant Spanish descent, are returning to Spain to increase the number of sick there.
Feeding on slaughtered gray squirrels and meticulously controlled by veterinarians, 15 chicks collected from Northamptonshire’s nests travel this week to southern Spain where they will be held in special birds in the field until they are mature enough to be released.
“When we went to Spain in the late 1980s and said,‘ Can we have some stars? ’, Spanish conservationists were very excited,” said Ian Evans of Natural England, who participated in the original reintroduction of the English and is helping with the transfer of birds to Spain today. “The amount of effort to find nests, control them and collect chicks is considerable. This has made a complete circle and we are doing the same, using the knowledge we accumulated in the 1990s to help the Spaniards.”
The reintroduction of red kites into England has been the most successful bird of prey restoration project in Europe. In 1989 there were only 42 breeding pairs of red kites, fighting in the Welsh highlands. Today there are an estimated more than 6,000 breeding pairs in Britain, the second largest national population in Europe after Germany, and 17% of the world’s population.
The British population is still growing and there is such a surplus of red kites that they have taken chicks from the nests of the forests of Forestry England in the east of the Midlands for other relocation projects in Cumbria and Aberdeen, as well as in Spain.
Karl Ivens, on the right, RSPB field officer Simon Dudhill and veterinarian Sophie Common prepare the red kite chicks for Spain. Photography: John Robertson / The Guardian
The nests are controlled and only one louse is caught from the nests with several chicks, so the wild birds continue to breed offspring and do not leave their nest. Birds are taken between four and six weeks of age, so there is no risk of them becoming domesticated or “printed” on humans.
Thirty birds will be brought to Spain each summer for three years in the project, funded by the EU’s Life program and supported in Britain by organizations such as the RSPB and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation.
Karl Ivens, Forestry England’s wildlife guard manager, said: “I joked with the Spanish environmentalist in the 1990s that ‘one day I’ll bring them to you’, without ever waiting for it to be true. Quotes in Spain they sound a bit like coal in Newcastle, but there they have been put in danger of extinction after problems of persecution. “
“From a genetic point of view, these birds are very close to the Iberian birds that still live here,” said Alfonso Godino, head of the Acción por el Mundo Salvaje (Amus) project, one of the reintroduction partners in Spain, where the population has dropped to less than 10 breeding pairs in the southwest. “It’s really amazing that this single action, the reintroduction into England, can have a lovely reaction even three decades later.”
Carrot-fed red kites have declined in Spain due to the poisoning of animal carcasses, sometimes to protect lambs from foxes. But, according to Godino, thousands of Spaniards can thrive again because harsh measures, including prison sentences for illegal poisoning, have now reduced the mortality of thousands of reds.
Two six-week-old red kite chicks being transported from the UK to Spain. Photography: John Robertson / The Guardian
“Illegal poisoning will never go away, but the level has dropped a lot over the last decade.”
This was the experience in England after the reintroduction of the Spanish Milanese. The red kite thrived because illegal persecution fell alongside an increase in the understanding that the carrion feeder does not threaten the viability of pheasant outbreaks or other rural businesses.
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“No one knew if they would leave the pheasants and partridges alone, but over time the gamekeepers realized for themselves: the kites don’t eat pheasants and partridges,” Evans said. “A lot of the goalkeepers really got into the stars.”
Duncan Orr-Ewing of the RSPB, who led the first red kite reintroduction program in Scotland and advises on the latest project, said: “It’s about conserving biodiversity and we can never realize it. The Spanish population of “Red Kites was almost revered, but it shows how things can get worse without any protection. We have to keep our eyes on the ball and make a positive contribution wherever we can.”