Rewilding in the Greater Côa Valley | Shaping a new future for people and nature
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- Опубліковано 25 січ 2022
- The Greater Côa Valley, a beautiful yet relatively unknown place in northern Portugal, is located close to the Spanish border between the Douro River and Malcata mountain ranges.
Characterised by its river gorges, oak forests, rocky heathlands and scattered fields, this is an area where wild nature is now returning to the landscape.
The abandonment of a significant part of the Greater Côa presents an unprecedented, large-scale opportunity for rewilding and the comeback of wildlife. More than 100,000 hectares of land have already been set aside for conservation in the form of Natura 2000 areas, boasting an interesting mix of natural and semi-natural habitats.
The Greater Côa Valley is home to a growing population of wild herbivores such as wild boar, roe deer, and red deer, while river gorges are popular with cliff-loving animals such as vultures and eagles. On the poorer soils above granite bedrock, the landscape is dominated by very small landholdings that have been cultivated for centuries - these are now also increasingly being abandoned. The top predators here are the Iberian wolf, which is present in the form of a small pack, and the Iberian lynx (which should naturally be present, but remains absent for the time being).
Discover more about our vision and actions in this rewilding landscape:
rewildingeurope.com/areas/gre...
Beaver introduction could immensely improve water quality and increase soil water table, thus improving vegetation, thus improving food availability for grazing and browsing species, which in result will benefit predators and at the end - help the vultures.
Love it !!!
I think they should reintroduce bison and chamois in this region too. It seems lacking in terms of big mammals, and seems to be the least developed rewilding zone you guys have.
Does rewilding Europe consider the feasibility of beaver and otter reintroduction on this site (i don't know if the Habitat is suitable for that, maybe there's not enought water or trees around, such as birch and willow)
And donkey (maybe kulan) reintroduction, i've recently learn that there was a wild donkey specie in Europe few thousand years before,
(It would be interesting to have water buffoes and donkey breeding back to have a good proxy for those species, like we do with tarpan and auroch)
I guess that there's primitive/rustic breed of donkey that still look and act like their ancestor
Or even dorca gazelle (in proxy of gazella borbonica)
Anyway this is maybe one of my favorite place of rewilding europe with Danube delta and i don't know why
Does there's Iberian lynx i don't remember (i know there's cattle, horse, vultures, other raptors, wolves and Ibex but i don't remember for feline such as wild cat and lynx?)
Iberian lynx is confined in the southern regions of the country, so no, no lynx. But their population is growing quite rapidly so maybe in the near future.
@@guerreiro943
I know
From 90 to over 1000 individuals
But reintroduction Can accelerate the return of this specie
Donkey's ancestros weren't the European wild ass but the Somali wild ass which have different ecological dynamics and then shouldn't be used. The priority is to use kulan or the onager(which I prefer because we would have 2 wild ass in Europe and be even more diverse,in addition to being the same species as the extinct European ass)
As for Water buffalo,they weren't present in the Iberian peninsula as far as I know but could be a great addition bringing a whole range of ecological benefits
For the Gazelle,it is useless as they became extinct before the late Pleistocene/Holocene
@@NatureByDhole
For gazelle some were still here during holocene like saïga in eastern Europe plus we can try in a controled experiment to see if dorca gazelle have a good impact on the environnement or no
It would be good for this endangered specie (even if protection and reintroduction in the native range is still the priority)
Water buffaloes could have lived in the iberian peninsula
Since they were quite widespread and quite adaptable, we don't have fossils but it's hightly propable since the environnement was quite good for them (temperate or hot climate with wetland and plants)
Kulan or primitive breed of donkey would be my choice to rewild Europe
I know that those are not Always the same species but their behaviour and ecological niche is similar
But having Two different wild ass species is not a great Idea if they Can interbreed, that would destroy both species or create a competition
Using proxy is the only viable option when you don't have the original specie
Like for tarpan and auroch that are replaced with cattle breed and konik/exmoor/bosnian/pottok horse
Did you know that they were rhino, elephant, girafe and hippo in Europe
But that was a long time ago
Althought i would like to see girafe in greece all southern east of Europe and Turkey again
Any chance of kulan and Dorcas gazelle, as proxies for the extinct European Ass and European Gazelle?
The European Gazelle, if I’m remembering correctly, went extinct in the early Pleistocene, long before what we know as “modern” ecosystems emerged. The European wild ass was recently found to be a subspecies of the Asian wild ass, so Kulan (or another living Asian wild ass subspecies) would certainly be a good reintroduction candidate.
@@dynamoterror7077 yes indeed,however the Onager could be the one used in Iberia. As a conservation value and taxon substitution purpose,and then we would have 2 wild ass subspecies in Europe making it even more diverse