Environmental factors determining the establishment of the African Long-legged BuzzardButeo rufinus cirtensisin Western Europe
Winters have become warmer under the impact of climate change, which has modified the phenology of birds and also their distribution ranges. The African Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus cirtensis has recently colonized Europe via the Strait of Gibraltar. We aim to explain the native distribution of this species and to predict favourable areas in newly colonized parts of Europe using geospatial modelling to identify the most influential factors in this process. We applied the favourability function, a generalized linear model describing environmental favourability, for the presence/absence of breeding areas in northern Morocco and the southern Iberian Peninsula, according to a set of variab…
Species distribution models as a useful tool in conservation programs: the case of the Northern Bald Ibis
The Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita) is one of the most endangered species on the planet. Its original distribution covered from Syria and Turkey (with migrant populations) to Morocco (where the species was sedentary). Over the last century, the species had suffered an extreme decline in its population size, and is now considered tobecritically endangered. Nowadays, the original distribution range of the species is restricted to the Agadir region in Morocco. In Europe the Northern Bald Ibis was extinct 400 years ago, and the species is only present in Spain and Austria, and this is due to two different conservation projects, i.e.e. the Eremita project and a LIFE+ project, respectivel…