Iberia: natural history and environment

Horseshoe whipsnake in La Manga, A Wild Cat in Grado, El Pantá de la Foixarda.

2005-10-23T23:21:00.000+02:00

A Wild Cat in Grado. Read

A Horseshoe whipsnake in La Manga. Read

El Pantà de la Foixarda. Read

Latest lynx news

2005-10-23T23:12:00.000+02:00

Cub count for 2005 + several lynx found dead during September - October
Read here

Spain and Asian Bird Flu

2005-09-06T20:05:00.000+02:00

The risk of wild birds bringing Asian bird flu to Spain seems for the moment unlikely but all the same here's the lowdown from the bird people at SEO. Read

+ Summary of July's and August's news: fire and drought and drought and fire, brown bear manifesto, Cumbre Vieja in La Palma causing mega-tsunami questioned, Fundación Oso to inseminate Paca and Tola in spring 2006, Osprey breeds in mainland Spain for the first time in 60 years, Capercaillie in the Cordillera Cantabrica declared endangered, Lynx excrement in Alcaraz, First European mink born in activity. Plan to breed capercaillie in captivity...Read

Natural history of Barcelona

2005-09-06T20:02:00.000+02:00

Part 1 This has been gathering digital dust for some time. Early first draft. Much more is needed. Read

+The voices of the Iberian lynx. mewling, chattering, gurgling, growling, snorting...even roaring.

Collserola frogs, Spanish bees, Gibraltar apes and Iberian bichos

2005-06-18T11:09:00.000+02:00

New
Frogs in the Pantà de Vallvidrera
Bees in Spain. A brief introduction

Updated
Barbary ape in Gibraltar
Land invertebrates in Spain New creepy crawlies and Catalan names.

Bear infanticide and lack of carrion

2005-06-14T18:52:00.000+02:00

There seems to be a worrying trend among Cantrabrian male bears to eat cubs. Also, EU anti-mad cow law has removed carrion from the mountains, an essential part of bears' springtime diet. Read

Online atlas of Spanish birds

2005-06-14T18:46:00.000+02:00

Well worth a visit, but here's my review of this online site.

Online atlas of Spanish birds

Haddock, monkfish, John Dory and langoustine under threat

2005-06-07T16:35:00.000+02:00

It seems not just the anchovy is in trouble in the Bay of Biscay. Read

Plus latest on the drought. Read

And on the lynx cubs new taste for mice. Read

Greenhouses in Almeria

2005-06-04T23:28:00.000+02:00

The expanion of greenhouses in Almeria as from a new atlas from the United Nations Environmental Programme.

Read

El Valle de Cabúerniga

2005-06-04T17:13:00.000+02:00

El Valle de Cabúerniga

Read.

Anchovies in danger

2005-06-01T09:41:00.000+02:00

Anchovies catches in the Bay of Biscay have plummented from 60,000 tonnes to just 200 this year. Read

Lynx and bear cubs

2005-05-28T12:35:00.000+02:00

Iberian lynx cub returned to its mother after killing sister. Brezo and sister in picture. Read Read

Glimmer of a shred of hope for Pyrenean bears
Pyrenean bear cub alive - The cub of Canelle, the last totally autochthonous bear of the Pyrenees shot by a French hunter in November 2004, has managed to survive the winter without its mother Read

Been off with a bad, bad back so slow updating this and had to pull out of trip to Zamora to try and see wolves...

More triva

2005-05-28T12:30:00.000+02:00

25 million cars in Spain in 2004, freight traffic, Oviedo fog, Spanish tsunamis, wolf numbers, Largest cities in Spain in 1600, highest provincial capital, coldest, smallest capitals in Spain, etc. Read

tsunamis in Spain, Galician mermaid, literacy in 16-17th Castille, Oviedo fog, first Spanish dinosaur

2005-04-14T11:06:00.000+02:00

New section on iberianature of snippets, quotes and whatnot.
Notes from Iberia (working title)
tsunami occurences in Spain, a mermaid in Galicia, literacy in 16-17th Castille, fog in Oviedo, first Spanish dinosaur.

You know, that sort of thing.

Ospreys, bears and lastest lynx news

2005-04-14T11:00:00.000+02:00

Ospreys back breeing in Spain

Other captive lynxes not pregnant

Brown bears on the rise

Lynx cubs, hórreos and epistemology in Don Quixote

2005-04-02T16:54:00.000+02:00

Epistemology in Don Quixote The period was characterised by a timid awakening of the scientific method coexisting with medieval forms of investigation, or a confusion of empirical fact and poetic myth.
Hórreos. An essenial element of the Asturian landscape
Lynx cubs born in captivity. The birth of three Iberian Lynx cubs in captivity may just signal the saving of the species.

Montpellier Snake

2005-03-29T19:05:00.000+02:00

This was taken in Doñana. It's a young Montpellier snake, the largest and commonest snake in Spain. Read

Zoological errors and omissions in the DRAE

2005-03-28T15:59:00.000+02:00

A complaint on the coverage of zoology in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española Read

Full article on Iberian Lynx

2005-03-15T14:31:00.000+01:00

The Iberian Lynx, the most endangered of the world’s 36 cats, stands on the edge of extinction...

Read

Lost lynx population discovered in the Montes de Toledo

2005-03-12T16:44:00.000+01:00

Read
Or go straight to Full article on Iberian Lynx

The Ebro, Barnacles and Mongooses

2005-03-10T00:39:00.000+01:00

Barnacles in Spain
Spanish barnacle buffs distinguish two types: the highly prized “de sol”, which grow on sunny and wave-beaten rocks and which are distinguished by their short, fat peduncle (foot); and the less prized “de sombra” or “aguarones” (shaders or grippers), which spend more time below water and have a slenderer and longer body and a higher water content. Read

The River Ebro
Ultimately the word may well derive from the Basque words ibai (river) and ibar (valley), and these from ur meaning water. Linguists have noted similarities with the names of 200 other European rivers and streams (e.g. Ibar in Serbia, Ebrach and several Eberbach in Germany, Irwell in The UK) giving a tantalising clue as to a form of Basque being once spoken throughout Europe before the arrival of Indo-European tribes and languages. Read

Guide E in progress

eagles, earthquakes, eels (not yet), earwig synonyms, the Egyptian mongoose, eucalyptus...Read

Alien fish, Bird of the Year and Freezing February

2005-03-03T23:36:00.000+01:00

My trip to watch track and hopefully see wolves in the Sierra de la Culebra in Zamora has been cancelled due to the weather. Temperatures down to minus seventeen in the area around the hides. These boring bits instead.

Invasive fish in Catalonia
Bonelli's Eagle Bird of the Year for 2005
A Freezing February

A viperine snake in Navarra

2005-03-01T13:08:00.000+01:00

I took this last August at midday on a shaded stone wall just outside the village of Yesa in Valle de Roncal in Northern Navarra. A path wound its way up from the village to an old hermitage (la Ermita de Santa María). Like many in this part of Spain it is known as the Vía Crucis (Way of the Cross). The path is marked by 14 crosses, the 14 stations of the cross. They were a pious lot these Navarrans. Our friend the Viperine was resting opposite the second one, if I recall. Read

On the Barcelona-Madrid Ave

2005-02-21T22:34:00.001+01:00

...The crane seems now as essential an element of the Spanish landscape as the Osborne bulls, the cotos de caza signs and the roadside bars and brothels... (with flash movie)Read

Tiger mosquitoes coming your way

2005-02-21T22:28:00.000+01:00

According to scientists, the nascent Sant Cugat tiger mosquito colony seems to be here to stay. Read

Climate change in Spain

2005-02-17T14:19:00.000+01:00

An immense 800-page report has just been published on the effects of climate change in Spain . The study looks at two possible scenarios for increases in CO2 by 2100
Read (I'm slowly wading through the conclusions in the pdf report and will periodically update it)

See also
Little Ice age in Spain
Pyrenean glaciers melting fast
45 page report here in Spanish pdf

Bears to be released into Pyrenees

2005-02-15T17:48:00.000+01:00

It looks like the death of Canelle (see BBC article here), the last autochthonous female bear of the Pyrenees, last autumn at the hands of a French hunter has not been in vain. The public and political attention given to the shooting appears to have spurred on the authorities with the announcement of a joint plan for the recover of the brown bear in the Pyrenees by the Spanish, French and Andorran governments. For the time being the bears are to be released on the French side, beginning with five females next September. Read article

See also Record dry January

History of Malaria in Spain (updated)

2005-02-14T10:23:00.000+01:00

Every summer thousands of us travel to exotic climes with mosquito nets, jungle-strength cream and anti-malarial drugs. But how ‘foreign' really is Malaria to Spain and Europe ? Read more

The ghost station of Guadalajara

2005-02-14T10:18:00.000+01:00

After Zaragoza the high speed Ave train stops at Calatayud. It's a sensible choice. A potential pole of regional development in a dry land. Cranes stand in their dozens over the new blocks. Behind the town the old ... Read more

Lynxes on heat

2005-02-06T01:11:00.000+01:00

One of the last hopes for the incredibly endangered Iberian Lynx, the most threatened cat in the world, is captive breeding. No Iberian lynx has ever bred in captivity but this year the biologists at the El Acebuche centre in Doñana have announced that the seven lynxes at the Centre are on heat - detected by typical changes in behaviour (roaring, meowing – somehow neither word seems right for a lynx – mewling, urine markings, sniffing, banging heads together, licking). The seven have been grouped into Read more

Record white stork count in Spain

2005-02-05T20:12:00.000+01:00

A record number of White Storks have been counted this year in Spain according to the VI International White Stork Census organised by Spanish birders, SEO. 32,923 storks were recorded, almost double the 1994 figure Read article

More new stuff on website

2005-02-04T01:03:00.000+01:00

Brown bears not hibernating
Endangered birds in Spain
Change to forest fire law
Spain freezes in Siberian air (George Orwell on the cold in Spain)

Edible sea urchins
Physical geography and geology of Spain
Reptiles in Spain (including lizard eating tradition)

Latest articles from iberianature.com

2005-01-12T15:24:00.000+01:00

Chestnut blight/Chestnuts in Spain
Mammals in Spain
Climate in Spain
Climate change: Iberia most affected (Updated)
Iberian Wolf (Updated again )
Olive farming. olives and oil (Nick and Frances)
Lammergeyers
The Little Ice Age in Spain
Ape ancestor discovery and Spain in the Miocene
Acorns and rats in Castile
Some notes on Almeria
Altamira
Badgers in Spain
Biography of Spanish mountains (IN PROGRESS update 2)
Bites and stings (the land)
Bites and stings (the sea)
Bonelli's eagle
Climate change threat to Sierra Nevada Flora
Bird atlas and changes in land use in Catalonia
Earthquakes in Spain
Els Aiguamolls and Malaria (by Francis Barret)
Fire
Half-wolves and vulture feeding stations
History of Malaria in Spain
Holm oaks and the dehesa
Locusts
Mega-tsunami of La Palma
Monumental trees and encinas
Naranjo de Bulnes
Origin of Iberian Lynx and Imperial Eagle
Pyrenean glaciers melting fast
Spanish landscape paintings
Spanish cows and beef (F.Barrett+N.Lloyd )
State of the Coast
Strabo on Iberia in "Geography"
Temperature records
Tiger mosquitoes and the history of yellow fever and dengue in Spain
Tourism, wetlands and the Delta de Llobregat
Wind farms

Courgettes, gourds and aubergines
Pepper and peppers
Tomatoes
Other stuff
Mad cows in Spain
Weather news
Highest mountains in Spain
Highest mountains in Spain by province
Spanish Provinces by surface area (km2) and altitude bands
Principal rivers (and water basins)
Rivers and tributaries of mainland Spain
Fire statistics 1992-2002
Castilian synonyms for mountain, hill and crag
English-Spanish-Catalan-Latin bird checklist for Spain
English-Spanish-Latin mammal checklist for Spain
Freshwater fish in Spain - Spanish -English -Latin
Spanish amphibians Spanish -English -Latin
Ultimate Iberian badger glossary (
Spain in facts, figures and trivia

blog update

2004-10-19T20:42:00.000+02:00

Links to more recent articles

Acorns and rats in Castile
Courgettes, gourds and aubergines
Earthquakes in Spain
Half-wolves and vulture feeding stations
Mega-tsunami of La Palma
Monumental trees and encinas
Pyrenean glaciers melting fast
Temperature records
Tiger mosquitoes and history of yellow fever and dengue in Spain
Tomatoes

And:
A-Z Guide to Spanish nature and landscape A B C-CL

Iberian Badgers

2004-09-13T21:29:00.000+02:00

I probably should be talking about the 250,000-35o,000 tonnes of toxic waste found the other day resting in the Flix reservoir just waiting to do to the Ebro Delta what the PP failed, but instead I'm going to talk about badgers.

Badgers are found throughout mainland Spain from the green forests of the Cantabrica to the semi-desert scrubs of Almeria, but are absent from... Read

Tossa de Mar Shark

2004-09-13T11:12:00.000+02:00

Following on from the thing on 'bites and stings in the sea' (see below), I came across this on a newsgroup: > "A few years ago a female was caught near Tossa de Mar (Gerona Spain). Is it true that the local authorities silenced the news because of tourism?
Yes, indeed they did.... unsuccessfully" Read

Speaking of fish, I've added a complete (?) list of freshwater fish of Spain in Spanish, English and Latin here.

Rabies update: Spain had NO CASES of rabies in 2003. (source WHO)

Fire

2004-09-06T23:59:00.000+02:00

Predictions at the start of a summer of a “complicated” summer in terms of fire have unfortunately been proven correct. Andalusia has been worse hit, having had its worst year since 1991 when 65,544 hectares were burnt. Read

Return of the Wolf

2004-09-03T20:12:00.001+02:00

Spain is one of the last remaining refuges of the European wolf. The population is slowly recovering from its 1970 low of 400-500 odd individuals with current (2003) figures estimated at 2,500, almost 30% of European wolf numbers outside the ex-USSR. Read

Mega-tsunami returns

2004-09-01T14:35:00.000+02:00

I’ve been looking though the news to see what I’ve missed while I was away. Fire, fire and fire is basically the answer. Something on this blight soon, but first that story about the Canarian mega-tsunami engulfing the US eastern seaboard has been doing the rounds again. The Benfield Hazard Research Centre, the British research unit responsible for... Read

Bites and Stings 2: The sea

2004-08-29T21:47:00.000+02:00

Here's the second part of the 'Bites and Stings' thing, a compendium of beasties in Spain wanting a piece of us. This part deals with the sea. Click here for first part dealing with the land (bears, snakes, spiders, caterpillars, etc.)

Despite the huge numbers of people bathing in the Spanish Mediterranean, reports of dangerous sharks (tiburones) are rare to say to the least. A scuba diver was killed by a Great White Shark ....Read

Iberia most affected by climate change

2004-08-21T23:21:00.000+02:00

According to a new report by the EEA (European Environment Agency), Spain and Portugal will be most affected within the EU by coming climate change. Storms, floods and droughts are likely to become more and more frequent with a significant rise in temperature expected. The report notes that temperature in Europe has increased... Read

Naranjo de Bulnes

2004-07-24T19:35:00.000+02:00

Naranjo de Bulnes is a limestone horn of almost sheer walls which rises above the village of Bulnes to more than 2,500 metres. Its base resembles an immense chunk of bread. Until well into the spring its fissures and crags are adorned with blankets of snow. Climbing Picu Urriellu is extremely difficult, and although each of its faces has been conquered, it is still by far the Spanish mountain to have claimed most lives of climbers. Read

Locusts

2004-07-23T17:53:00.000+02:00

The huge swarm of locusts which invaded Port de la Selva on the Costa Brava this week, spreading panic and hysteria among tourists and locals alike, is not related to the desert species which is causing so many problems in North Africa. Read

Lammergeyers (adapted)

2004-07-21T01:22:00.000+02:00

Lammergeyers or quebrantahuesos (bone breakers) as they are known in Spanish are the largest bird of prey in Eurasia. They feed on marrow which they get by dropping bones repeatedly onto rocks, as their Spanish name aptly suggests. Their old name in English of ossifrage also refers to this habit. Read

Winners and Losers in Catalonia

2004-07-20T01:44:00.000+02:00

A rise in forest birds, a decline in steppe species and six new parrots are some of the conclusions of the second edition of the Atlas of Breeding Birds of Catalonia, whose summary has just been released. It reveals some interesting details. In broad terms... Read

Costas in Literature

2004-07-18T20:27:00.000+02:00

Following on from ‘the State of the Coast’ (see below) here’s a few literary references I’ve come across on the condition of the costas.

The mountains had withdrawn from the sea, keeping their distance a mile inland, Near Sotogrande the golf courses began to multiply like the symptoms of a hypertrophied grassland cancer. White-walled Andalusian pueblos presided over the greens and fairways, fortified villages guarding their pastures, but in fact these miniature townships were purpose-built villa complexes financed by Swiss and German property speculators, the winter homes not of local shepherds but of Düsseldorf ad-men and Zürich television executives. Read (page down)

State of the Coast

2004-07-16T20:07:00.000+02:00

Following on from yesterday’s report by WWF/Adena on the state of Mediterranean wetlands (see article below), Greenpeace today added their piece in a comprehensive and damming study of the Spanish coast. Not one autonomous community is saved from criticism, though the report notes improvements in the protection plans and anti-pollution policies of Catalonia, the Basque Country and Asturias, while at the other end of the scale lambastes (surprise, surprise) the Balearics, the Canaries, Murcia, Valencia and Galicia. Read

Tourism, wetlands and the Delta de Llobregat

2004-07-15T18:58:00.000+02:00

News today of a report by the WWF called 'Freshwater and Tourism in the Mediterranean'. It claims that tourism is destroying wetlands and depleting water supplies in the Mediterranean. The expansion over the next 20 years, with a predicted rise of visitors to the Med's coastline from the current 235 to 355 million tourists a year by 2025, will make things even worse. With tourists come apartments, and swimming pools, and golf courses which all demand water (the latter is said to use the equivalent of a town of 12,000 people in a year), and infrastructures which eat up valuable space. France, Greece, Italy and Spain have already lost half of their original wetland areas, the report claims. Read

Els Aiguamolls and Malaria

2004-07-11T22:38:00.000+02:00

The Aiguamolls or marshes of the Alt and Baix Empordà were formerly much more extensive than the few thousand hectares to be seen nowadays. Nothing remains of the large lake at Castelló, with its three islands, or the lakes of Siurana, Vilacolum, Riumors, Bellcaire, Ullastret and Pals except historical records (documents from the 17th and 18th centuries). After heavy rain and high East winds the water can again be seen to rise in their former beds, most spectacularly in the case of Ullastret as seen from Llabia.
The legend of "El bruel", which refers to .... Read

Bites and stings

2004-07-10T21:15:00.000+02:00

When I was eight years old I was bitten by an adder in a fern forest in Norfolk, England. Ever since I have been fascinated by the dangers lurking in the woods, rocks and the sea. And it’s summer again, which is when most of us get bitten and stung, so here’s a compendium of beasties in Spain out there wanting a piece of us.
Attacks by wolves and bears are of course extremely rare, though there was a case in May this year of a man who was seriously injured by a bear in Palencia. He was out mushroom picking and stumbled upon a female with its cubs. After being battered and left for dead, the man managed to save himself by tying a tourniquet above a deep gash in his leg. King Favila of Asturias, son of the legendary King Pelayo, was allegedly killed by a bear in Covadonga. The historical symbolism was not lost on Spanish republicans this year, when they paid homage to the ‘regicide bear’ in a celebration to....Read

The Little Ice Age in Spain

2004-07-09T20:44:00.000+02:00

The decline in temperatures throughout the world between the15th and 19th centuries, commonly and poetically known as ‘the Little Ice Age’ is a well documented event supported by copious and extremely diverse scientific and historical evidence, ranging from studies of ice core and tree ring samples to the disappearance of the fledging Viking agricultural colony under Greenland’s ice sheets and the prevalence of snowy landscapes in the art of the time. Scientific consensus reckons on a temperature of 1º to 2º C lower than today in Northern Europe, but is there evidence for a cooling in the Mediterranean and Spain? Read

Flamencos and eagles

2004-07-05T23:17:00.000+02:00

La Vanguardia has two bits of bird news today.
A mass flamenco ringing took place in the Park of the Delta de Ebro yesterday involving 170 people. While the adults were away on their morning feed, 400 young flamencos were rounded up into a pen and ringed. Flamencos have been breeding in the Delta since 1992, and there are currently some 1,500 pairs which this year have raised 900 chicks.

Not so healthy is the Bonelli’s eagle population. Read

Castilian synonyms for mountains, etc

2004-07-03T19:24:00.000+02:00

Richard Ford, the 19th century traveller and first British hispanophile, jokingly said in ‘Gatherings from Spain’ that the country is just one big mountain. 24% is above 1000 m and 76% between 500 and 1000 m. Spain has an average altitude of 660 metres. In Europe only Switzerland is higher (by a long way - average altitude of 1,300 metres).
So it should come as no surprise that Castilian is so rich in words for mountains, hills, cliffs and plateaus. Here’s a by no means exhaustive list.

alcor: hill
alcarria: high-flat plateau with little vegetation.
aguja: jagged peak
altiplanicie: extensive high plateau
altiplano: synonym of altiplanicie
altozano: small hill
arista: ridge; arête
Read

Altamira

2004-07-02T16:11:00.000+02:00

There are many versions to this true story and this is mine.
On a summer’s day in 1879, an amateur anthropologist and his eight-year old daughter were exploring the area around Santillana del Mar, when they came across an opening to a cave. It had been exposed a few years previously by a landslide provoked by heavy rains. A hunter had chanced upon it the year before, but finding no bears or wolves, he continued on his way. Intrigued, father and daughter lit their charcoal lamps and climbed in through the entrance. As the anthropologist scoured the floor for bones and arrowheads his daughter looked up to the cave’s ceiling and exclaimed, “Look Dad, they’re cows! (Mira, Papá, son bueyes)” .

What they saw now forms part of Spanish and World culture..... Read

Climate change threat to Sierra Nevada Flora

2004-07-01T01:11:00.000+02:00

The unique plant communities of the high Sierra Nevada appear to be under threat from rising temperatures. According to the Andalucian government, a rise of 1.2ºC has been detected in the province of Granada over the last 20 years, which although not much in itself has been enough to endanger 65 endemic plants, most of which are only to be found in the highest altitudes of the range. Like its African and Andean counterparts, the pseudo-alpine habitat, known cumbersomely as crioromediterraneo in Spanish, is extremely .... Read

Record temperatures

2004-06-29T22:59:00.000+02:00

The highest official figures were recorded in Écija, also known as the ‘sartén or frying pan of Andalucia’ in the province of Seville in 1959 and again 1967, and Seville itself in 1946, both with 47ºC. Experts suspect that temperatures of 50º have been reached at points in the .... Here for complete article.

Fire alert 2

2004-06-28T21:50:00.000+02:00

More on forest fires. Spain’s environment minister Cristina Narbona has warned of a ‘complicated summer’ in terms of forest fires. Click here for full story

Malaria in Spain

2004-06-28T01:50:00.000+02:00

It's summer again and as usual some of my friends are off to exotic climes with their mosquito nets, jungle-strength cream and dizzying drugs. But how ‘foreign' really is Malaria to Spain and Europe? Despite all the hysteria about climate change enabling malaria to spread to the West, the weather is by no means the biggest factor in determining the presence of malarial mosquitoes. Europe was until the last century rife with the disease. In fact, the last country in Western Europe to eradicate malaria was cold, damp Holland in the late nineteen-sixties. Malaria, or ‘paludismo' as it is also known in Castilian, was endemic to Spain until well into the 20th century. The disease probably took off from its ancestral enclaves with the .... Click here for complete article

Origin of Iberian Lynx and Imperial Eagle

2004-06-27T23:03:00.000+02:00

Contrary to established opinion, the incredibly endangered Iberian Lynx and the Spanish Imperial Eagle did not originate in Iberia’s Mediterranean forests.
A new study by Juan Negro and Miguel Ferrer working with the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and published in Conservation Biology shows that the ancestors of both species came originally from far to the East in the steppes of Asia Minor, and did not arrive in the Peninsula until one million years ago. Complete article here.

Wind farms

2004-06-27T17:49:00.000+02:00

El Pais today has an extensive article on the state of wind power in Spain. It discuses wind farms as a boost for local development citing the example of La Muela in Aragon where the windmills bring 600,000 euros to the municipal coffers every year.
Spain is a windy country but it is perhaps surprising that it is now the third biggest wind energy producer in the world with 9,650 mills, producing 6,202 megawatts at the start of 2004, just behind the USA and a long way from Germany.
Click here for full article