The Toledo Civil Guard has arrested a 61-year-old man for killing an Iberian imperial eagle, one of the most endangered birds on the Iberian Peninsula, with a firearm. The detainee is the guard of a hunting reserve located in La Mancha Toledo, in an area of special relevance for the dispersal of fauna, the armed institute says in a statement. The investigation by the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Toledo Command began in February after learning of the discovery of a lifeless specimen of the Iberian imperial eagle in a space that the Civil Guard prefers not to identify to safeguard the species.
The operation, called IMPEMO, determined that the animal had been shot dead by a man who was carrying out surveillance work in a hunting reserve. The agents detained the guard and seized the weapon used to commit the crime, a 17-caliber Browning rifle, as sources from the Civil Guard have informed EL PAÍS. The detainee, who has no police record, faces a prison sentence of up to two years, as well as disqualification from exercising his profession, hunting or fishing, and the penalty of deprivation of the right to own and carry weapons for a period of up to four years.
The environment in which the specimen was killed is part of the Network of Protected Areas of Castilla-La Mancha, which integrates various wildlife and fishing refuges, as well as Special Protection Areas for Birds (SPA) and Places of Community Importance (SCI). These environments, integrated into the Natura 2000 Network, have special measures for the conservation and recovery of species in danger of extinction. The Iberian imperial eagle – Aquila adalberti – is included in the Spanish catalog and in the regional catalog of threatened species of Castilla-La Mancha as an “endangered species”, due to its small population and high risk of disappearance in the short or medium term.
The last census of the Iberian imperial eagle in the Peninsula, carried out between 2021 and 2022, counted 841 breeding pairs, 821 of them in Spain and 20 in Portugal, an increase of 53% since 2017. The species has its main distribution area in five autonomous communities, especially in Castilla-La Mancha, the region that brings together 47% of the breeding pairs. Its territory has very favorable habitats for the species, mainly in the Tagus Valley, the Sierra Morena environment and Campo de Montiel. According to this census, the province of Toledo is “key” to the survival of this species with 212 identified population centers.
Threats to the species
The Iberian imperial eagle has a program life of the species that began in the 1990s and seeks to address the main threats to its survival, with measures to minimize deaths from electrocution and poisoning with toxic baits illegally placed in the natural environment. According to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (Miteco), between 1992 and 2017, 195 imperial eagles died from this cause, followed by others such as poaching, poisoning from eating prey with high lead content or the development of infrastructure that negatively affects their recovery.
Despite its classification in Spain as an “endangered” or “endangered” species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lowered its protection to “vulnerable.” The proliferation of wind farms is one of the latest threats facing the species. Between 2022 and 2024, according to SEO/Birdlife, three Iberian imperial eagles died from impacts in three wind farms in the province of Albacete. The organization considers it “essential” that the deployment of renewable energies be done with criteria of environmental compatibility, “respecting current legislation and the ecological values of the territory.”
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