Google – AFP, Roland Lloyd Parry (AFP), 2 March 2014
A wild
horse in the hills above Sabucedo, a town in northwestern Spain,
on July 1,
2011 (AFP, Miguel Riopa)
|
Campanarios
De Azaba — In an oak wood spanning the border of Spain and Portugal, an ancient
sight unfolds: wild horses, not saddled or shoed, but roaming free as they did
centuries ago.
Farming has
declined in Spain, leaving the countryside deserted, conservationists say. Now
the wild things are coming back: wolves, vultures and rare herbivores.
Dozens of
Spanish "Retuerta" horses have been released over the past two years
here into the 500-hectare (1,235-acre) Campanarios de Azaba Reserve.
"It's
a wonderful horse that has been around since time immemorial," despite
coming close to extinction, said Carlos Sanchez, director of the conservation
group running the site.
"We
are recovering the most primitive breeds to try to help manage an ecosystem
which has been abandoned due to the disappearance of humans."
Nuzzling
its mother's velvety brown hide, a foal suckles then disappears among the trees
with the grazing herd.
"We
released these animals to live by themselves, to take care of themselves in
their environment," said conservationist Diego Benito, 35.
"We don't
feed them. We just watch them and monitor how they are doing in their groups,
which are the dominant horses and which of the mares are pregnant."
Overall in
existence there are only about 150 Retuertas -- identified by genetic studies
as one of the oldest horse breeds in Europe.
They were
brought from the Donana National Park in southern Spain -- previously the only
place where they existed -- to create a second breeding site in Campanarios,
where they now number about 50.
Two wild
horses fight in the hills of Sabucedo, a town in northwestern
Spain, on July 4,
2009 (AFP/File, Miguel Riopa)
|
- Wildlife
comeback -
Sharing the
reserve with rare vultures and free-roaming cows, the Retuerta horses are among
the animal pioneers of what conservationists call "rewilding".
The
Campanarios reserve is part-funded by Rewilding Europe, an initiative for
development through "wild nature" in various countries.
"For
the first time in history, Europe is facing a situation where there is no
grazing anymore," said Frans Schepers, managing director of the
Netherlands-based organisation.
"There
has been a lot of land abandonment in Spain over the past few decades," he
said.
Therefore,
in recent years "Spain has shown a very interesting wildlife
comeback," with wolves, vultures and even the endangered Iberian lynx
recovering in numbers, he added.
Rewilding
aims to turn this into an economic opportunity, to draw visitors and revive
abandoned rural areas in the long-term.
The
Campanarios reserve, currently inhabited just by the animals and a handful of
staff, aims to draw groups of wildlife spotters and boost the local economy.
Jon
Teixeira, 27, works in the reserve planting trees, releasing rabbits and
leaving dead chickens for vultures to feed on.
"I am
glad there is a reserve here -- that way we'll have jobs in the area, where
there's a lot of unemployment," he said.
"And
it's a good job there's a place where you can't hunt, otherwise all the animals
would be wiped out."
Some wild
horses run before a 400-year-old horse festival called "Rapa das
bestas" in the village of Sabucedo, northwestern Spain, on July 6, 2008
(AFP/
File, Miguel Riopa)
|
- Stone age
safari -
Elsewhere,
conservationists this month released a herd of wild oxen to graze in a reserve
near the northern Spanish city of Burgos.
In the
coming months they plan to add endangered European bison and other breeds of
wild horse to the reserve.
The oxen
were set free near the Atapuerca prehistoric site, where archeologists have dug
up human remains more than a million years old.
Conservationists
want to take people visiting the dig on a stone age safari to see the living
descendants of the beasts that roamed the area aeons ago.
"In
the archaeological site lie the bones of the ancestors of todays' species.
These are their evolutionary descendants," said Fernando Moran, a bison
specialist at the park.
The
Atapuerca site is not part of the Rewilding Europe initiative, but it shares
the aim of drawing money and jobs to the abandoned rural areas while also
preserving endangered species.
"It is
about nature conservation, but also tourism, development and land
management," Moran added.
"Spain
is in general a fair bit more wild than the rest of Europe. Lots of hectares
are being left empty, which for wild animals are obviously perfect."
No comments:
Post a Comment