The Council has recovered 3,351 specimens of shearwater during the annual protection campaign It started in mid-October and has now ended. The Minister for Natural Environment Management, Isabel García, highlights the role of volunteers, “without whose help the results would not be the same.”
The birds fell in an attempt to lift their first flight to the ocean. The initiative is coordinated by the Cabildo Wildlife Recovery Center (La Tahonilla) and consists of rescuing juvenile shearwaters injured by disorientation mainly due to light pollution. Of the total recovered, 95.5% 3,200 specimens were released, the majority in the south of the island. Adeje (1,026) and Arona (826) were the municipalities with the most affected birds.
In the comparison with 2018, the recovered specimens have increased by 27%. These two years are compared as they present similar conditions, especially with regard to the luminosity of the moon, since if there is a full moon there are fewer accidents because the shearwaters go towards it and not towards the light of the city. The gray shearwater is a very vulnerable species with conservation problems due to the fragility of the habitat where they breed and the loss of juveniles when they leave their nests.
