Abstract
Human actions on the natural environment cannot always be considered as impacts resulting from their behavior to survive. Many of these activities have caused irreversible damage and changes in the landscape, flora, and fauna. By contrast, several actions, carried out “a priori” with the best intention, to help in the conservation of species considered in danger, have caused a dangerous decompensation. Aid for the recovery of some species of birds has led to their overpopulation. The artificial contributions of food, always in the same places, have caused an excessive increase in the number of griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus), which has produced the reduction of other endangered species, such as the black stork (Ciconia nigra) and the Bonelli’s eagle (Aquila fasciata), which have been displaced from the rocks in which they nested due to the harassment of a greater number of vultures. Besides, vultures are attacking domestic livestock at the most defenseless times, such as during calving. Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) has become out of control in numbers in Europe. The two classic breeding areas, La Camargue (France) and La Laguna de Fuente de Piedra (Spain) have produced an enormous annual number of individuals that are distributed among the few lagoons of Mediterranean Europe. The wetlands are devastated by the flamingo, which removes the mud and prevents sunlight from reaching the underwater vegetation, turning these lagoons into dead water, having to be abandoned (temporarily) by most aquatic species, including the flamingo. The shortage of food resources of natural origin, for such a disproportionate number, has caused the flamingo to invade the rice fields, accepting its grain as a substitute for the invertebrates that it habitually consumed, and which are now scarce. The same is the case with the white stork (Ciconia ciconia) in southern Europe. The increase in their population has reduced the number of reptiles and amphibians, bringing several of their species to the brink of extinction. Storks have varied their prey spectrum, consuming carrion, and preying on Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus) brood. In these cases, and many others, the theory of “the more the better” is not valid. If we want to make the protection of some species compatible with the conservation of others, it seems necessary to redirect some situations …
Highlights
That this chapter will be one more that deals with the impact that certain invasive species cause on the biota of a certain area, region, or country
The measures implemented by different public administrations and/or conservation entities, to try to recover a specific species and avoid its classification as endangered, near endangered, etc., have provoked, and still do, a series of reactions both target species in question, such as related species or prey species; even on those that we would never have believed could be affected by the recovery plans of the former
In the fifth year they settled on a pine tree where they stayed for a few years. It goes to another rock near the reservoir, surrounded by breeding griffon vultures, it was successful for another 4–5 years and in the end it was displaced by griffons, this has happened 3 years ago and we have not located the nest of this couple or their descendants [4]
Summary
That this chapter will be one more that deals with the impact that certain invasive species cause on the biota of a certain area, region, or country. “Traditionally, indicator species have been considered those that, by being present in a certain system, indicate that said ecosystem is healthy, from the physical, chemical, or biological point of view (or, by the on the contrary, that it is deteriorated, as occurs with the species of aquatic invertebrates that indicate contamination) They are usually species that are easy to detect and “monitor“ so that the demographic changes of their populations can be detected in time and interpreted in terms of other variables of conservation interest that are more difficult to measure” [2]. Density can and should have a limit These premises constitute the basis on which this chapter will work: The growth in the number of specimens/surface unit of a specific species, which has been “helped” in different ways, is affecting other populations in such a way that it has displaced or eradicated them from specific areas, endangering their existence.
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