Why we reintroduced these raptors from England to Spain
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- Опубликовано: 1 июн 2024
- After decades of decline, we are helping bring back the Red Kite to the Iberian wilderness! In this video, we will show you the journey these birds undertook from the UK to reach their new home in Spain and also explain why we are doing this.
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⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 Intro
1:10 About Red Kites
2:27 The problem
4:00 Our project
🧐 ABOUT THIS PROJECT
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The red kite (Milvus milvus), an iconic, graceful raptor has had a turbulent relationship with people over the centuries. This keystone species fulfils vital ecosystem services as a scavenger and predator, features that have seen them receive both praise and persecution. In mediaeval London they were hailed for ridding the streets of disease. In the following centuries their fate changed as they were targeted for their egg, hunted and poisoned to extinction in most of the UK. Translocating red kites from Sweden and Spain in the early 1990s revived the red kite in the UK and now it’s time to return the favour.
Today, in their southernmost range in the Iberian Peninsula the red kite is in severe trouble. Over the years they have faced numerous threats that have depleted their population to a critical level. This project plans to re-enforce their numbers by reintroducing 90-100 red kites from the UK to Extremadura in Spain, over a 3-year period. Multiple stakeholders are engaged in this effort to release, monitor and address the threats to ensure a successful recovery in this important region for the red kite. Through the contributions of our members we are providing the remaining funds needed to undertake this LIFE Eurokite project with our partners, AMUS.
Read more here:
mossy.earth/projects/red-kite...
🌲 If you would like to support our rewilding and reforestation projects by becoming a member you learn all about them here: www.mossy.earth Every single member is essential and it is ultimately what makes our work possible. - Cheers, Duarte
This ecocide merry-go-round of reintroducing species will forever continue until we're honest with ourselves and finally accept *human overpopulation* is driving the ecocide (particularly in affluent societies where we impact the planet the most). #MathsDenial is worse than Science Denial and much more widespread, unfortunately. We need to ethically get the human population to decrease (and across all demographics - not just the poor!) or we're going extinct in a couple of centuries - taking most multi-cellular life with us. Double the humans, double the ecocide. Half the number of humans and 'hey, presto'...
I see Red Kites all the time now here in the UK, hopefully we can achieve the same for Spain!
They're in good hands, so fingers crossed!
@@MossyEarth Or is it good wings
@@MossyEarth Am I bet With these predatory birds hunting the introduced d pheasant will Will make it easier to keep these invasive birds under control
I live in Spain and I see them everywhere, its literally the raptor I see more, I don't understand why they are focusing on this species
@@fj7990 youre probably in an area with a higher density of red kites. It isnt an even spread. You may be seeing 60% of the population whilst else where theirs little to none
I love that you’re encouraging the people to participate in monitoring the birds. That’s so exciting, and will have far-reaching impact.
Thanks for the positive feedback.
many species here in spain suffer from decline due to all the problems you mentioned, I hope you save many more species, we really need it. :)
Unfortunately the story is much the same in many countries, but we'll keep doing our best to try and change that! - Tom
I've recently become a member of Mossy Earth and have shown some friends your videos to show why. This is why. Your awesome portfolio of different projects that you divide the money over and the high efficiency with which you spend the (modest amount of) money that your members give you sets you apart from most "charities". Please keep up the amazing work!
Thank you for the positive words. We look forward to sharing many more fascinating projects with you!
Please give me options to donate in your app on different projects! Times are tough but when times are good I would like to throw money at some of your projects! It would make me very sad to see the government pull back their funding on your team 🥺
Thanks for your support. Yes, it's a feature we are currently working on. And btw, we have no government funding. :)
I remember seeing my first Red Kite in the mountains of mid Wales in the late 90s, was something special. Now, in south Bedfordshire and West Hertfordshire I see them almost every day. They fly over my home, and others fly over where I work. I even see them regularly up in Leicestershire.
Isn't amazing how far they have come in such a short time!
similar thing in southern germany you can see them everywhere - although they can be confused with the common buzzard wich is coloured a very similar red here (but no forked tail - size )
I see these birds all the time and I’m just outside london good to the them thriving
I live in Sussex and even in just the last few years I only ever saw them in wales. Now I see them flying over head all the time! Witnessed 3 of them flying above me the other week was seriously beautiful! Awesome birds
Brilliant to see that some of our red kites here in the UK will be going to reestablish their populations in Spain!
Yes, it was a really rewarding project to be a part of.
Hopefully the recovery there will follow the same trend as the UK one! - Tom
I love how it's repaying a favour in a way. Spanish Red Kites helped us and we're paying it back :)
A number of the returning birds still had Spanish DNA.
When I lived in Wiltshire (UK) Kites were EVERYWHERE. Their reintroduction has been a huge success. Now, I'm in North Wales and didn't realise they had gotten this far North yet, but saw my first one last week.
They're stunning birds and they're always a huge delight to see in the wild.
That's so cool to hear!
Far more likely they are welsh birds, not from introductions breeding. There were more than a 100 welsh birds at the time of the English introductions. A German bird flew in in the 70s and after that the welsh population increased rapidly from a baseline of 40 or so pairs. Here in west Herefordshire kites came in from the west at a rate of 3 miles per year. They spread like an ink blot.
I'm from Spain. Love what you are doing!
I'm from the outskirts of Madrid and here I see Red Kites (which are one of my favourite birds to see) all the time, in fact there has been an increase of population, you can even see them close to the city. I thank you for what you are doing in the parts of Spain where the population of this amazing birds are struggling. I hope the reintroduction is successful, for what I hear this project and others are already helping!
Thank you for sharing. Yes, the project is in Extremadura so a few hours from Madrid.
I experienced an experiment in a valley in Switzerland close to Zug in The vincinity of Zurich.
In a given Valley, ALL farmers agreed to reduce the chemical entrants they spray on the fields. Over 2 years, a virtual cycle got triggered, smaller animal animals found good, creating a food chain and the shy was populated again but prey birds 🦅!
Nice to know the UK can give back what we receive
When I was growing up in Oxfordshire, England we never saw these magnificent birds. Now whenever I go back there to visit my Mother I see them every time. It shows these projects work and so good to repay the favour to Spain. 👏.
Thank you for sharing, such stories were the inspiration to this project.
Oxfordshire is where I grew up! I see them all the time
You can sometimes see as many as 10 of them in the sky at once! Those are lovely days when it happens ❤
What a great video! Love the full circle aspect of this project and the link with Matt's personal story. I also appreciate the transparency of the whole process. Looking forward to updates on this project!
Thanks Tom, we're looking forward to seeing it progress too! - Tom
We have them here in southern Germany and I love seeing them patrouling over our village and sometimes coming low over our garden. I love to hear their iconic cry when they are high in the sky, sometimes the whole family of six. It is March and hey just came back from Africa were they stayed over the winter. My wife works at a animal shelter and she told me that they get a lot of buzzards that were hurt by cars, but they never have red kites as they are obviously more carefull.
2 seconds in and you've terrified my cat lol, he hated the sound of that hawk on a primal level
I've had a pair nest in a large beech tree in my garden, which was pretty awesome. There are so many in Berkshire/Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire, that you kind of take them for granted. There is a beautiful spot on the Thames, near Cliveden, where I often spot many roosting in the trees. I never tire of seeing them and hearing their distinct call. A truly magnificent bird. Well done to all @Mossy Earth for going that extra mile. We need more people like you!
There's now a red kite that regularly flies over where I work in South Wales. And I always see one over the M4 by Swindon, it's become a landmark but in the sky!
I hope men and wildlife can co-exist in this area. Good luck little Red Kites!
Thank you for sharing. We hope to see similar results here in Spain.
I live in Chesham and see and hear Red Kites all the time. Love them.
I assume you have also engaged in an education process with local people. No more shooting, poisonings or capturing chicks! Thank you for your passion and dedication!! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼❤️❤️❤️💥
Yes, exactly, and also the local school got involved for the second release.
We have soooooo many Red Kites in Chesham, they are so beautiful to watch just gliding over our town.
I hope the world gets saved thank you people...for everythong
I live in an area of the U.S. where a similarly sized raptor (red-tailed hawks) are in plentiful supply, but seeing them stays enjoyable even if it's an everyday affair. I hope red kites become a similarly mundane pleasure for the U.K. and Spain!
We do too :)
Looking out of my home office window in The Chilterns I can almost always see at least one red kite circling in the ridge lift. The area is mixed small woods, arable farmland and villages. Just spotted one now - less than 15m away!
Are you planning on flooding and water retention in Spain?, I think this is the most needed over there. Cool project by the way.
2:23 Next time you post a map like that, use one that show the animal's population density. For example, you could use red for highly dense areas, yellow for moderately dense and green for less dense.
Great video as always Tom, Matt and Duarte!
I just used the range shown on the IUCN map for that section. Showing density would look brilliant and be a more accurate way of showing the range, but I'd also need to collate data from every part of its range and turn it into a map. In other words it's many hours more worth of work for a very short section, and we're a bit stretched hitting these deadlines already! - Tom
@@MossyEarth, try searching _"red kite population density"._ I saw some maps. Or you could ask the government agencies to provide one. They might have such maps.
Also, won't the GPS backpack make them more prone to capture by hunters?
Agreed with Alex - particularly because just because maps exist, doesn't mean the data in them is valid. If Mossy Earth were to include a map they'd want that map to be accurate, so even if they were to use something pre-existing, they'd still have to verify the data to ensure accuracy, which is a lot of additional work.
@@AGooseInSweden they can try using a program like ArcGIS, a lot of governments/research institutes have data on this kind of stuff and it's relatively easy to put it into those programs. Here in the Netherlands most of this data is open, free and pretty trustable. A lot of places already give access via those programs, so it's basically only figuring out how to do it once and after that only looking up the data from a trusted source and figuring out the layout. I've only worked with ArcGIS, so I don't know what the other programs are like
@@merelha5930 You'd still need to dig up these sources for all European countries, composite it into a single dataset and then do a nice visualization of it, just so you can show a slightly prettier picture for five seconds. It's a lot of work for not super much added value...
I saw my first Red Kite in the Elan Valley, Wales. I pulled over to watch them, and quite soon there must have been a dozen cars along the road, with an excited crowd of visitors. It must have been in the late 1990s, and on subsequent visits it was obvious how successful the scheme had been, because every year there were more and more. During lockdown, I saw one flying overhead on the edge of Birmingham, and last year I saw them from my friend's garden in a Leicestershire village. I never cease to be excited however many I see.
Hopefully, the Spanish scheme will be as successful. Ironically, I had a Spanish friend visit some years ago, and took him to the Elan Valley. He had never seen a Red Kite in Spain, but on that visit we saw so many that we gave up counting.
Such a nice story! Tell your friend to visit Extremadura :)
Crazy. I must say. I was sceptical when i first saw one of your vids. But now? Now im all in. Hope this channel getsd more attention, because this is probably the best advertisment for a membership. No bullshit, full transparency and RESULTS! I love it. Good luck in the future and one day im a member too^^
Thank you for the honest feedback, Moritz.
Wow! I am a spaniard living in the uk for 36 years and I see red kites flying over my house in St Albans every day! I hope they take off in Spain again, they are beautiful birds and such an important part of the ecological chain, but poisoning of wolves and other species in Spain could could contribute to a lot of deaths of the birds from eating contaminated carrion. Amazing project what are you doing!
really enjoyed this video. I remember growing up in East Anglia and seeing my first Red Kite in the 90s and my father explaining it was quite a rare site! I have had a thing for raptors for a long time and have been pretty chuffed with the quite obvious boooom in populations the UK has seen over the last generations. I recently got a train from Newmarket to Cambridge (15miles-ish) and saw 4 red kites out the window on the way and it made me super happy knowing this was, not long ago, considered rare AF! Im really glad to see that the hard work isnt stopping and proud that the efforts in the UK have lead to an abudance able to roll the population back to its homeland! Success story! Pat yourselves on the back!
I love thermalling with them in the EIFEL region in germany❤😊
Its insane how good they thermal compared to other predator birds
Just popped outside before watching this vid and saw one, great watch here in UK good luck Spain
It's great seeing how well they bounced back here in the UK, here's hoping the Spanish population can do the same! - Tom
Over my childhood I saw the population of red kites explode in my area in Yorkshire. It was amazing to see it happen. What once was a rare sight over our suburban house became daily
I recently moved near to one of the big reintroduction sites (Harewood estate) in North Leeds I often see large groups of Red kites flying around and almost daily see one from my bedroom window hunting through the backgardens and green spaces, I used to live In South Leeds, much more built up area of Leeds than where I live now but still I saw red kites often hunting in the fields around my grandad's small holding, I love seeing them and so happy to know our reintroduction programme may help another program, really is a huge success story
Thanks for the positive feedback. Having not lived in the UK for so long, it is really nice hearing these comeback stories. We'll also be sure to keep you updated on these red kites in Spain.
@@MossyEarth Yeah we don't get many in the UK (hopefully more soon with the beaver etc) but I'm sure things can be turned around in Spain but sounds like there's a fight on your hands with the persecution they get, I'm a Ecologist so love stuff like this, would be my dream working for or getting involved in reintroductions like this or an organisation likes yours, one day I'll become a member at least I can help in one way
Fortunately, persecution is on the decline in Spain so fingers crossed. Also let's hope for more beavers in the UK.
another big big problem here in spain is also the extreme drought and lack of any rain, on top of the extreme heat we are STILL experiencing. it's November now but it still feels like the height of summer with over 30 degrees.
Amazing what the birds let do with themselves.
I imagine the bird striking an earthworm with 180 kilometers, 112 miles per hour and be all like "gotcha!". xD
Jokes aside: I really like everything I saw from you. Fantastic work!
Yeah, they have to be good with there braking range :)
Beautiful raptors. I see and hear them every day in oxford, I live near a park and always hear their unique calls and see them circling for prey
Such a fantastic project, well done all at Mossy Earth. Wishing this project all the success!
Thanks so much!
So happy that the Red Kite is doing well enough in the UK to repopulate other countries.
Same goes for the Chinese water deer. I belive the Uk holds 40 percent of the global population
Nice job ..🇪🇦🇬🇧👍
Thanks, Jason.
My mum lives in Wendover and we get the joy of watching a couple breeding pairs flying over her house and around the town, they're so amazing and graceful 💜❤️💜
Always had a soft spot for raptors job well done
There's so many i need to be careful opening out my patio door. Always swooping across the garden and close to the windows
Amazing work by Mossy Earth! Especially happy to see Matt Davies in front of the camera as a particularly brilliant addition. We're stoked to be working with you, and are truly inspired by your dedication and ingenuity when it comes to ecosystem reservation and supporting species such as the magnificent red kite. 🦅
Thank you for your positive words and we too are very grateful for your continued support and work on our kelp restoration project!
It's been great to see Red Kites in the area I live (Essex), I remember when I was kid they were something I looked out for when I went to Wales, but now I've seen them flying over my street. I really hope someday in Spain people can say the same thing.
The UK recovery was amazing and exactly what we hope for with these kinds of efforts (The British Trust for Ornithology's Breeding Bird Survey reported a 1450% rise between 1995 and 2016) so hopefully the Spanish population will bounce back just like ours did! - Tom
Thank you for doing projects in my home country 🙏 it is very appreciated.
Our pleasure!
Hip hip hurray!!! Great. This is very comprehensive.
Thank you for the positive feedback.
The calls they make are so cool!
We have red kites in Sweden, I have 2 breeding couples in my area, I love their cries. We also have lots other raptors and owls.
I was surprised to know that this is happening in the southern parts of Spain, i see them in the northern half quite often.
Yes, the north is not struggling like the south. Where do you see the red kites? I used to live in Cantabria and the Basque country.
thank you king
Great video guys! I hope these little help could boost this population and it’ll be lovely to see if any of these birds and their offspring cross the border and start to be more frequent in Portuguese side 🙌🏽
We know that one has already crossed into
Portugal. :)
I am from Extremadura and I was amazed and surprised by the project. Hope to see these guys around.
Hey Pablo. nice to meet you. Where in Extremadura? I'll be going back many times over the next months.
Wonderful birds, so graceful and agile
This is Extremadura, be welcome.
Delighted to see how common they are in parts of England. There are a pair overhead here virtually every day and Christmas Common in England is heaving in them.
Glad to hear it!
One of my all time favourite birds, love seeing them here in the UK. Keep up the great work.
Thanks Mike! They're one of my favourites too, seeing the way they stared down the vets only made me love them more haha - Tom
It's lovely to see a video from you Matt! I love the old school pic :) I am lucky enough to see red kites everyday here in wales - although a mountain guide last week referred to them as pests which I was sad to hear.
Thanks for the positive words Rebecca. Long live the centre parting, bowl cut look. :)
Great video Matt, and what a lovely story it will be if we can recreate the same success that the Spanish birds had in the UK!
Yes, fingers crossed it has the same success.
I have a breeding pair next to my field, they have been there for years now and we can get very close to them as long as you wear a hat!
This is amazing. Well done Matt, the team at Mossy Earth and everyone else that’s involved! 👏🏻
Cheers for the continued support!
We saw the last 12 in the same valley nr llandewi breifi back in 1980 amazing.
In Spain we call them "Milano Real" and is quite common. I live nearby Madrid and I the Guadarrama mountain system and mostly through out Segovia are very common. I'm very surprised to hear they are threatened to the levels you say, bit yet again I can agree that the South of Spain has suffered a massive degradation regarding its local fauna as the population rose while the center of the peninsula with the exection of Madrid is depopulated.
Yes, it's alarming how different the situations in each province can be.
@@MossyEarth yes! Thank you guys for preserving nature. I live now in Malta and here they need this more than any place I've ever been.
In England they were called the Shite Hawk due to their predelection for waste tips.
I was raised in Cambridgeshire and only 2 large bird of prey I couldn't identify at the time on two different times. My mum still lives there and I've been visiting every year.
This year I've seen 6 at least in one day. Absolutely amazing to watch!
That's great news!
I love those! Saw them in south of Sweden.
Wow!
I hope you enjoy the video! - Tom
Thanks!
Welcome!
Wow that was an emotional video. Great!!
Thanks Julian. It was an emotional one to make too.
I was lucky to grow up near to where red kites were released, so grew up seeing (or seemingly seeing) buzzard numbers drop as the red kites just grew and grew.
Thanks for sharing. Do you know why the decline in buzzards?
@@MossyEarth its only a feeling that they're declining. Since the reintroduction of kites I see more and more red kites (finding nests and simply flying around) whereas the buzzard numbers seemed to drop.
It wouldn't surprise me that more red kites would mean less buzzards, they are competing with each other.
I'm not worried about any decline though, since its farmers and gamekeepers that are more of a problem for buzzards than any conservation work.
Thank you for the video and all the efforts!
Thank you for your support Felix! - Tom
Another amazing project! 🦅🙏
Thank you! Cheers!
You all fill my 💚 with hope
Thanks, Eric!
I see red kites every day 3- 4 at a time in the Derwentwater valley Durham !I have never seen them feeding though
Great work. Thanks for what you do.
Much appreciated
Great work Matt! Keep it up!
Cheers Dharmesh!
Beautiful, Beautiful creatures 😍
Yes they are!
Love this project, such cool birds. Really excited to start becoming involved in more large projects like this, feels like we are making a difference
Awesome! Thank you!
The circle of life! Always good to see these videos to add further colour to the project summaries provided to members! Keep up the good work!
Glad you like them! And thank you for the epic t-shirt!
Another great video. I always learn something new.
Awesome, thank you!
Great work as usual! I love red kites, whenever I see one I take it as a sign of good luck. 💚
Thanks for the positive feedback. Next time I see a red kite, I will remember your comment. :)
You do amazing work. Thank you.
Our pleasure!
I really like the transparency. Keep it up!
Appreciate it!
Wow! Cool!
Thanks for the positive feedback!
Thanks for such an interesting video. I live in Madrid and we see a lot of red kites around, especially in the north. This year there seem to have been many more black kites than usual.
Cheers!
Great job!!!
Thank you!!
Well done Matt, Alfonso and the team at AMUS. I am really excited about this project :D
You and Tom had a big part to play in putting this together :)
Just recently started seeing red kits come back to leicestershire near me, it's lovely. They're so huge.
Yes, weighing in at a kilo and a wingspan of 180cm, they're not small. :)
180km/h is roughly 100 knots (nautical miles per hour).
Just think, if you're in a Cessna Skyhawk, you may have to firewall the engine to fly straight as fast as a red kite can dive.
If all goes well and they thrive in Spain it will be incredible to see them and know we played a part in that!
Here's hoping that'll be the case, they're in good hands with Alphonso so there's as good a chance as any! - Tom
Great video
Glad you enjoyed it
So cool
Thanks!
Great work and presentation. I am excited and proud to be a fully fledged (and free to fly) member :)))
A fully fledged fantastic!
@@MossyEarth Takes one to know one :)
I live in the Sintra Hills near Lisbon and love our resident Bonelli's Eagles, which is the only raptor species in the area. Just the other day though, I saw a raptor with a much larger wing span. It wasn't close enough to spot its colour or tail shape, but perhaps your westward trail led one of your red kites this far? Either way, well done on your great work and fab video.
Hello Simon, I lived for a number of years in Colares and two of the Mossy Earth team still do, small world! Looking at the gps data, they have not yet made it over to Sintra but never say never.
Amazing. I live in Bavaria, Germany there are also many red kites here. Amazing birds.
Wonderful!
this is awasome im portuguese and i like to explore for different species of everything even plants , but i love birds, hopefuly one day ill be able to see fly past my house.
i did had a good experince once, when a Huge bird looked like an eagle, landed on a branch just on top of me damn i love these things.
Let's hope one flies by your house. Where do you live?
@@MossyEarth in a village close to Santarém
I had the pleasure of watching one, it was around for a week, almost like clockwork. Circling marshland & fields that I live near in Surrey, uk. 3 weeks ago, it dropped into my garden and grabbed a collared dove!
Wow, thanks for sharing. Did you take any photos?
@@MossyEarth it all happened rather quickly 😅 I was under a large parasol 20ft away, so as it happened I gasped and slapped my hands over my mouth... this startled the red kite, and it released the collard dove, 180’d off its back and flew away. The dove went under some bushes then flew away after a couple of minutes 🤷♀️
An unforgettable experience!
And keep the the red kites safe as now Spain is heating up like anything. Good Luck guys.
Yes, the last weeks have been unbearable at times.
At 2:22 there's map of red kite distribution, but it does not include the resident breeding populations in Ireland in Wicklow, Dublin and Down. They were reintroduced in 2011.
Our bad and well spotted.
Hi i live in south germany, the home Land of the Red kite..fun, i have seen this beautiful majestic bird my whole life...and i hope it will be seen the years to follow.
I love your projects and i will be soon member of your Organisation.
Greetings susan
Thanks for the kind words. Greetings from Portugal.
Sadly their protection status will get a heavy hit next year. :/
Red kites do well on shooting estates, habitat diversity and food availability seems to suit them.