Guidelines for the conservation of Bonelli’s eagle populations

This book provides a comprehensive suite of protocols and methods summarized in the form of guidelines to solve Bonelli’s eagle conservation problems applicable at different spatial scales, from territories to populations. The Bonelli's eagle is an endangered raptor of Mediterranean environments in Europe playing a key role as top predator in these natural systems. Chapters are grouped into two general sections that relate to two different stages required to implement conservation actions: (1) Identifying conservation targets, that is, evaluating the problem, and (2) Implementing conservation actions, that is, solving the problem. A decision tree for conservation of Bonelli’s eagle populations is provided and described in the first introductory chapter. By answering the set of questions in order, the reader will end up to one of the chapters of this document. Five ‘methodological’ chapters are included in the first section, (1) Population monitoring, (2) Determining territorial home-ranges and dispersal areas, (3) Population viability analyses, (4) Determining prey consumption and (5) Estimating mortality causes. And three chapters are included in the second section, (1) Legal tools for conservation, (2) Improving food supply and (3) Mitigation of mortality causes, where conservation actions are described to solve particular conservation problems identified in the first section. Overall, these guidelines provide an example of applied research and achievable conservation practice easily exportable to other populations of Bonelli's eagle as well as other endangered raptors

Long‑term response of open‑habitats species to wildfre salvage logging: the endangered European wild rabbit as example.

Salvage logging treatments, a type of logging to economic returns after natural disturbance, are often applied in the aftermath of wildfires. Specialist or dependent species of open-habitat usually increase their populations in the short-term after wild- fires and post-fire salvage logging. However, the long-term effects on threatened open-habitat species such as the European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus L.) are still poorly known. Thus, plant productivity, habitat heterogeneity and rabbit abundance were studied in the north-east Iberian Peninsula in four type of post-fire treatment plots: (1) unburnt, (2) salvage logging with branches left on the ground, (3) salvage logging and manual removal of branches, and (4) recurrent fires. Both the time since the fire and the treatment affected plant productivity and habitat heterogeneity. Plant productivity was quicker in treatments when branches were left on the ground or when branches were removed than in recurrent fire plots. Rabbit relative abundance increased in the short term but dramatically declined over time after fires, especially in the plots where branches were left on the ground and with recurrent fires, in which rabbit abundances fell dramatically. In the long-term, the lack of food availability and adequate habitat structure are the main factors affecting the maintenance of the rabbit popula- tion. An appropriate moment for managing burnt areas to favour the persistence of rabbit is between the fifth and sixth year after the fire. These actions also benefit the reduction of environmental biomass and so help prevent future severe wildfires

Guidelines for the conservation of Bonelli’s eagle populations

This book provides a comprehensive suite of protocols and methods summarized in the form of guidelines to solve Bonelli’s eagle conservation problems applicable at different spatial scales, from territories to populations. The Bonelli's eagle is an endangered raptor of Mediterranean environments in Europe playing a key role as top predator in these natural systems. Chapters are grouped into two general sections that relate to two different stages required to implement conservation actions: (1) Identifying conservation targets, that is, evaluating the problem, and (2) Implementing conservation actions, that is, solving the problem. A decision tree for conservation of Bonelli’s eagle populations is provided and described in the first introductory chapter. By answering the set of questions in order, the reader will end up to one of the chapters of this document. Five ‘methodological’ chapters are included in the first section, (1) Population monitoring, (2) Determining territorial home-ranges and dispersal areas, (3) Population viability analyses, (4) Determining prey consumption and (5) Estimating mortality causes. And three chapters are included in the second section, (1) Legal tools for conservation, (2) Improving food supply and (3) Mitigation of mortality causes, where conservation actions are described to solve particular conservation problems identified in the first section. Overall, these guidelines provide an example of applied research and achievable conservation practice easily exportable to other populations of Bonelli's eagle as well as other endangered raptors