The largest surviving monk seal population in the world, at Cabo Blanco (between Western Sahara and Mauritania), has broken its modern record with 51 pups born in 2009. The breeding season began in May and the maximum number of births took place in August and September with 13 births each. Also, a new group of young females were identified this year as reproductive individuals, increasing the reproductive potential of the colony. Crónica Verde Blog

The conservation project is led by Spanish scientists. Spain sees the conservation of Cabo Blanco colony of monk seals a priority as the species was once common off its coasts. A small group of monk seals survived in Cabo de Gata, Almeria until the 1960s. In 2009, for the time in 50 years a Monk seal was spotted off coast of Mallorca.

The Cabo Blanco colony saw the birth in 2008 of 46 pups, practically the same as in 2006, and doubling those of previous years. The colony is now made up of 180? individuals of which some 50 are breeding females, demonstrating that it is finally beginning to recover from the mass epidemic caused by a toxic seaweed of the late 1990s which killed off 75% of the colony.

Distribution of monk seals. From The Monachus Guardian.

The Alpine Marmot is successfully spreading into the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees, and there may now be as many as 10,000 individuals in the region.

Marmots became extinct in the Pyrenees at the end of the last ice age, but were introduced by hunters into the French Pyrenees in 1948 in an attempt to reduce the pressure of predation on chamois by golden eagles. By the 1960s, they had crossed the frontier (first appearing in 1962-1964 in the valley of Otal, Huesca), and have since flourished on the warmer side of the range. According to marmot expert Bernat Claramunt, their arrival appears to have had some negative consequences on ecologies:

“As an herbivore that lives in colonies, its impact on the flora of the alpine and subalpine fields can be significant. In addition, it can be a key competitor for other herbivores that it coexists with, like the ptarmigan”

But they have also provided food for birds of prey who have found them “easy to capture”. Studies on the remains of golden eagles’  nests indicate that they frequently feast on marmots. Foxes also prey on them.

Again Bernat Claramunt notes:

“Very probably, the adaptive flexibility of marmots, the best climatic conditions on the southern slope of the range, and the lower density of significant predators, explain the rapid expansion of the species”. More here

They are likely to continue to expand in the coming decades much to the delight of hikers and birds of prey.

• The alpine marmot spreads into the Catalan Pyrenees
• Las marmotas colonizan con rapidez el Pirineo catalán (el Periodico)
• Distribution map of Alpine marmots
• Photo by Sylvouille on wikipedia

Simon Rice who writes an excellent blog here on iberianature has put together this comprehensive and original guide to the Eastern Catalan Pyrenees (and Pre-Pyrenees) which he calls “The Book”.

Scroll down for sub links in to wildlife, history, geography, food and culture.

The region of the Pallars Jussà and Sobirà, that is to say, the valley of the river Noguera Pallaresa, contains an extraordinary variety of environments within a relatively small area, with an abundance of associated wildlife. The fact that the region has until recently been isolated from the built-up areas around Barcelona and Catalonia’s coastal strip means that these environments remained in pristine condition while more accessible areas suffered the depredations of modern times, such as the use of pesticides, forest clearance, etc. Notwithstanding the fact that Catalonia’s star turn, the wonderful Parc Nacional d’Aigüestortes I Estany de Sant Maurici, was founded during this period, in 1955, the region now hosts dozens of large protected areas.

Visit Simon’s guide to the Catalan Pyrenees

The great Spanish author Miguel Delibes died on Friday 12 March. His love of the rural life and landscape of Castilla and hunting surfaced repeatedly in his books.

He won the Spanish-speaking world’s top literary award, the Premio Cervantes in 1993, along with the Premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Letras, and was a member of the Spanish Royal Academy. The Cervantes Institute said Delibes’ passion for the countryside — and hunting — had given him a true feel for the decline of rural life and the fragility of the environment. “It is not going too far to say that this hunter who writes measures his passions with a shotgun resting on his shoulder, and in this he finds joy, anxieties and even fineness of spirit,” the institute said in a biography of Delibes.

TP notes on the forum

“The recurring theme of his works was social injustice and the contrast between rural life and modernity. His ability to portray the harshness of rural life in Castilla and the language of its people was amazing. Many of his novels deal with hunting – deeply rooted in Castilla – and his famous essay justifying his love of hunting, “La caza: mi punto de vista” , and in which he vehemently criticises the mass slaughter of captive pieces, which will undoubtedly strike a chord among some iberianatureforumers, expresses very well the sentiment of many people, hunters and critics alike.”

One of his most famous novels, “Los Santos Inocentes” (The Innocent Saints), starkly portrays the impoverished existence of peasants living under a selfish and wealthy landowner. The book was made into a movie in 1984 by Spanish director Mario Camus. Watching it was probably one of my twelve(?) odd reasons for starting iberianature. Now it’s time I read the novel…

• Read about him on the iberianatureforum.
• Special on Delibes from El País

Guardian obituary by Michael Euede

Miguel Delibes, who has died aged 89, was the 20th century’s foremost writer about Castile, Spain’s central tableland. Born in the city of Valladolid, he lived there all his life. In his 20 novels and numerous short stories, he portrayed this provincial city, where apparently nothing much happens, but “you see people clearly, in the round. You see people live and die, and this gives a melancholy and serene drama to existence.” Passion in ordinary lives, sobriety and melancholy are the flavours of Delibes’s writing.

Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, (Poza de la Sal, March 14, 1928), the great Spanish naturalist and broadcaster, died 30 years ago today. He was killed in a helicopter accident while filming in Alaska on his birthday March 14, 1980.

He was an expert in falconry and animal behavior and spent many years studying wolves, but above all he was a great communicator who captivated Spain in the 1970’s, doing more than anybody to promote natural history among the general public. He is best known for the highly successful and influential series El Hombre y la Tierra (1975–1980), which you can watch online here. Millions of homes in Spain were captivated by the series, and there are possibly apocryphal tales of the streets being empty when the episodes were broadcast. The series and his other work played no small part in the change in attitude towards wildlife in general and wolves in particular. Rodríquez de la Fuente used wolves he had raised himself from cubs living in a semi-wild fenced estate for the film. They were different times with inferior cameras than today. But, for all its trickery, the episode on el lobo still stand out as superb and beautiful piece of nature documentary and holds a rightful place in contemporary Spanish folk memory. And his work inspired a whole generation of young Spanish naturalists who work in nature conservation today.

• More from Crónica Verde
• Wikipedia
• A certain degree of hagiography surrounds his figure (there are more 60 monuments to him in Spain including schools, plaques, parks and streets).
• Special in El Mundo

The legacy of his work is continued with the Fundación Félix Rodríguez .

• From Madonado

This lovely photo of Tabernas Desert in bloom was taken by Andrés Ivorra and posted originally on the forum. He notes:

“An exceptional amount of rainfall looks like snow but it isn’t. Linaria nigricans is in full flower in the desert of Tabernas. A joy for your eyes.”

I’m not sure how much it has rained in Tabernas itself but Andrés informs me that rainfall records have been smashed in Almeria capital this winter with some 400mm falling in just two months.

Check out Andrés’ site on Wildflowers of Almeria

Browsing through his site I can see it is not only about flora. It is also the best guide in English on the nature and geography of Almeria in general.

Three Iberian lynx have been run over in the last month in Doñana, one of the worst figures for years. The latest animal was a male found dead on the road connecting Matalascañas with El Rocíos. He is thought to have been dispersing in search of new territories. Almost three lynxes a year (26 in total) have been killed since 2000…And three in a single month is an utter disater. Clearly the traffic signs aren’t sufficient.  Crónica Verde

• More on Soria from Alfredo on the excellent Spanishfootsteps

The first female wolf in 80 years has been detected in Catalonia in the Sierra de Cadí. The first wolf in the Cadi was detected in 2004. More from Crónica Verde.

Tests have shown that this new influx of wolves in Catalonia is genetically Italian in origin, forming part of an expansion over a number generations out from the Apennines. The Apennine population began to expand in several directions from the early 1990’s. It moved north into the Italian and Swiss Alps; north-east into the French Alps and Lyon, and east towards the Pyrenees, reaching the Maritime Alps near Nice by 1996, Saboya by 1998. An individual was detected between Areja and French Cerdenya by August 1998 in the Madres Massif, just to the north of Canigó, and finally by 2004 into the Cadí range. The last Catalan wolf was shot in Horta de Sant Joan, in Tarragona in 1929, though the animal is thought to have disappeared from the Sierra de Cadí more than 100 years ago. More on wolves in Spain

There is a curious historical coincidence with Catalan wolves and Pablo Picasso. Horta de Sant Joan (where the last wolf was shot) was were Picasso is often considered to have developed cubism for the first time and he famously declared, “All I know is thanks to Horta de Sant Joan“. The great artist also spent some time in Gósol, the centre of the Cadí (where the new wolves have arrived), from the spring of 1906 to mid-August of that same year, where his works have been called his Gósol period. There are small Picasso museums in both villages which quite reasonably take advantage of his illustrious stays to promote themselves.

This remarkable sculpture of a wolf head is from Jaén in the early 4th BCE. The ears pinned back and the wrinkled muzzle suggest a threatening posture. It forms part of the so-called Heroic Sanctuary of El Pajarillo (Huelma, Jaén). It tells the story of a hero who confronted a wolf in the presence of two mythological beings. The hero frees a youth from the wild animal. On show at the Museum of Jaén.

This forum post in Spanish discusses the role of wolves in ancient Iberian society.

Almendros en flor by Santiago Rusiñol. From this blog about Catalan landscape painters. Probably painted in Mallorca around 1900.

This winter is proving remarkable wet. Precipitation this year in southern Spain has been so far the highest since 1963, with Sevilla receiving more rain than in the last 60 years. According to the INM, in Spain as a whole, January was 43% wetter than average for the period 1971-2000. The above map shows how this played across the country in terms of percentage of precipitation above average.  Albacete received for instance, more precipitation since 1941 when this series of records began. In the same province of  Castilla-La Mancha, the rains have helped save the much maligned Tablas de Damiel. Unsurprisingly, reservoirs are overflowing and many have had to open their gates. Temperatures have so far been normal.

Places in Andalucia

• The Arenas de Rey earthquake
• Arab baths in Jaén
• A beautiful beach in Cabo de Gata
• The gold mines of Rodalquilar
• La Cueva de los Murciélagos – The Bat Cave
• El Cortijo del fraile
• The Torcal de Antequera

Places in Aragon

• Daroca
• Mallos de Riglos
• Loarre castle
• Aneto

Places in Asturias

• Unspoilt fishing village in Asturias
• Blowholes of Asturias
• Tejeda del Sueve

Places in Castilla y León

• Villarcayo de Merindad de Castilla la Vieja
• The bear’s paw in Navacepeda de Tormes
• Lubián wolf trap
• Arribes del Duero
• Las Médulas
• Calatanazor juniper forest

Places in Castilla-La Mancha

• Site of the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
• Almagro Corral de Comedias theatre
• The windmills of Consuegra
• Castle-hermitage of la Virgen del Castillo
• Bronze Age site of La Encantada
• Marqués de Santa Cruz palace

Places in Catalonia

• Sant Martí d’Empúries – the most beautiful village in the Costa Brava?
• Estany Gento
• Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes
• Castellfollit de la Roca
• Ullastret

Places in Galicia

• Vilán lighthouse
• La Playa de los Ingleses

Places in Murcia

• Loarre castle

Places in The Basque Country

• Aitxuri, the most prominent in the Basque Country
• Ea – The shortest place name in the world
• Las Salinas de Añana
• La Torca del Carlista

These methods were justified by the needs of the times, but unfortunately wolves, today without justification, are still being illegally killed in their hundreds in Spain. This week for instance La Crónica Verde reports here on two wolves found snared in Anta de Rioconejos, Zamora. Their yelping alerted local people to their rescue.

• The Lubian wolf trap
• Mallos de Riglos
• El Cortijo del fraile

The house sparrow is still probably the commonest bird in Spain with some 10 million pairs, and although they are certainly not threatened as they are in, say, Britain which has lost 5 million pairs in the last 30 years, some areas have shown alarming trends. The birds are less and less common in Madrid and have seen a 90% fall in the orange orchards of Valencia. Crónica Verde

The poet Miguel Hernández described sparrows as the “los gorriones son los niños del aire” – the children of the air,

Garfio, the Iberian lynx who was captured in 2003 and begat the first brood of lynx cubs to be bred in captivity, has died this week from a chronic renal infection at the age of ten. In all he sired 11 little lynxes. El País

Photo of Garfio in action from Lynxexsitu.es. Thanks to TP on the forum who I’ve paraphrased here.

Dave spotted this remarkable scene of “a working pair of Oxen  with a cart full of manure, which the driver was distributing over a small rectangle of newly ploughed land. Location: some 40km from León capital. More here on the forum.

…an estimate of 5 packs within the park and its immediate surrounding areas. Of these family groups they estimate that each consists of between 5-9 family members, giving a minimum 25 and maximum of 45 individuals, not including the few probable loners. These figures are far below those claimed by local farmers.

The Observatorio Convergente de Árboles Singulares y Monumentales, of the Fundación Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente has made an interesting call for all yews in Northern Spain to form a collective World Heritage Site as a method of protecting them, from the serious attacks suffered in the last twenty years. In the photo above, the stunning yew outside the church of San Cristóbal de Valdueza, in Ponferrada (El Bierzo, León). Crónica Verde

See also

• Yews in Spain
• Largest yew forest in Europe to be protected

A new study by Sergi Garcia (who I do wildlife trips with) and Antonio Navarro has found that wolf tourism has become far more economic than wolf hunting in the Sierra de la Culebra. The study, presented at the Sociedad Española para la Conservación y el Estudio de los Mamíferos, simply adds up the earnings from both sectors . Earnings from wolf tourism (hotels, restaurants, varous purchases), brings in a remarkable 500,000 euros a year compared to 150.000 euros for all forms of hunting (including deer). ” Rural lodgings have increased from just 2 in 2002 to 15 in 2009. However, the study warns against the massification of tourism in the area and criticises the new wolf visitor’s centre to be opened this year in Sanabria.

More here (Estimación del impacto económico del turismo lobero en la Sierra de la Culebra).

News and photo from La Crónica Verde

An important step has been taken this week with the release into the wild of the first Iberian lynx bred in captivity. The two animals were set free in Guadalmellato, Cordoba in the Sierra Morena. Three more are to be released soon.

Photo from El Mundo of one of the released lynx as it bounds into the freedoms of the Cordoban hills.

I’m enjoying very much reading the newly published George Orwell Diaries, also available online here. In addition to politics and fascinating insights into the daily life of the late 1930s such as the price of eggs, there is a remarkable amount on natural history, clearly something Orwell found important and interesting. Although the diaries do not cover his time in the Civil War in Spain, he does write this from Gibraltar in September 1938:

Weather mostly hot & nights sometimes uncomfortably so. Sea variable mostly rather choppy. When no wind fish visible at least 10 feet below surface.
The Barbary Ape is said to be now very rare at Gibraltar & the authorities are trying to exterminate them as they are a nuisance. At a certain season of the year (owing to shortage of food I suppose) they come down from the rock & invade peoples° houses & gardens. They are described as large doglike ape with only a short stump of tail. The same species found on the African coast just opposite.
The breed of goat here is the Maltese, or at any rate is chiefly Maltese. The goat is rather small, & has the top half of its body covered with long & rather shaggy hair which overhangs to about the knees, giving the impression that it has very short legs. Ears are set low and drooping. Most of the goats are hornless, those having horns have ones that curve back so sharply that they lie against the head, & usually continue round in a semi-circle, the point of the horn being beside the eye. Udders are very pendulous & in many cases simply a bag with practically no teats, or teats barely 1/2 inch long. Colours black, white & (especially) reddish brown. Yield said to be about a litre a day. Goats apparently will graze on almost anything, eg. The flock I watched had grazed the wild fennel plants right to the ground.
Breed of donkeys here small, like the English. The conveyance peculiar to the place a little partly closed in carriage like the Indian gharry with the sides taken out.

Photo from Wikipedia by Karyn Sig