The project
LIFE Cerceta Pardilla
coordinated by the Fundación Biodiversidad of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, has reinforced this spring the population of this critically endangered species with 625 specimens from captive breeding.

The individuals come mainly from two of the leading captive breeding centers in Spain, and to a lesser extent from the Santa Faz Fauna Recovery Center in Alicante. Specifically, 239 specimens come from the Granja de El Saler and 22 from the CRF de Santa Faz, both belonging to the Generalitat Valenciana, and 364 were born in the Reserva Natural Concertada Cañada de los Pájaros, located in Seville (Andalusia).

The releases have been carried out in wetlands of the LIFE Cerceta Pardilla implementation area, as well as in wetlands of Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and Catalonia, in collaboration with other administrations.

Specimens from the Granja de El Saler and from Santa Faz. have been released in the Natural Park of L’Albufera (Valencia), the Natural Park of El Hondo (Alicante), the Municipal Natural Site of Clot de Galvany (Alicante), the Red Natura 2000 areas Marjal dels Moros (Valencia) and Marjal d’Almenara (Castellón), the Southeast Regional Park (Madrid), the Laguna de las Moreras and Saladares del Guadalentín (Murcia), the Laguna de Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real), the Laguna de Pétrola (Albacete) and in the municipality of Vila-seca (Tarragona).

For their part, the individuals bred in captivity in the Cañada de los Pájaros Concerted Nature Reserve. have been released in the Doñana National Park (Seville), the Laguna de Fuente de Piedra Nature Reserve (Málaga), the Pantano de los Palacios Wetland (Seville), the Punta Entinas Sabinar Nature Reserve (Almería), the Desembocadura de Guadalhorce Nature Reserve (Málaga), and the Cañada de los Pájaros itself.

New data on teal breeding from releases

On May 8, the first teal brood of the year was confirmed in a stream in the Paraje Natural Desembocadura del Guadalhorce (Málaga). The female, which is banded, is a specimen born in the Jerez Zoo and released in the Guadalhorce in November 2022.

This observation, together with other observations last year of brown teals with chicks (also banded) in the Laguna de Fuente de Piedra, in the Guadalhorce River and in the Lagunas de Bonanza, confirm the success of the release of captive-bred specimens, in this case from the Jerez Zoo and the Cañada de los Pájaros Concerted Nature Reserve.

Together with the releases carried out since the beginning of the project in 2021, the number of teals released from captive breeding has reached 2,980 , far exceeding the originally planned target of 1,000 specimens. Along these lines, and also within the framework of the project, a series of tools to improve captive breeding and release management of specimens, which include a ex situ conservation protocol for the speciesThe report also contains other documents that provide information on the release of specimens born in captivity, the operation of breeding centers, the removal of clutches in the wild, and recommendations for the genetic and demographic management of the species.

These ex situ conservation actions for the species, included in the National Strategy, complement the habitat improvement and threat reduction tasks that are being carried out in parallel within the framework of the project.

The LIFE Cerceta Pardilla project

The LIFE Cerceta Pardilla project aims to improve the conservation status of 3,000 hectares of wetlands to reverse the risk of extinction of Europe’s most endangered duck, which is in a critical situation in Spain.

The Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge are partners in the project.The Andalusian Regional Government, through the Segura Hydrographic Confederation and Tragsatec; the Regional Government of Andalusia, through the Department of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy and the Environment and Water Agency; the Generalitat Valenciana; the Government of the Region of Murcia, as well as the organizations SEO/BirdLife and ANSE. With the contribution of the LIFE Program of the European Union and the Directorate General for Water.

Photograph by José Miguel Ramírez.