The Lanner Falcon Ambra celebrates its first year of freedom!!

A great achievement for the LIFE LANNER project, told through the exciting journey of this specimen, which celebrated one year of wild life last March 23rd.

Ambra is one of the Lanner released in the 2022 season with the hacking method, carried out in close contact with the operators. This method differs from the classic one, in which the subjects do not interact in any way with humans, which had given bad results in our experience. This different approach led to the desired result: the individual frequented the release site for around 30 days, learning to fly and move around the area, developing their muscles and returning to the box every day to feed and spend the night.

Despite this progress, Ambra decided to move away in the summer of 2022 towards southern Italy. About a week later, thanks to the indications of her GPS, which highlighted an evident decrease in her movements, she was recovered near Foggia in a state of malnutrition. She had learned to fly, but not to find her own food.

After its daring recovery, a different path was then undertaken, having now passed the suitable age for hacking, introducing the specimen to hunting. It was gradually released into a suitable space in the R.N.R. Lake Vico, followed daily by the project operators integrating the GPS system with the VHF one to intercept its movements at any time. In March 2023 she began to explore the territory again, choosing to settle in the Roman Coast State Reserve, where we were finally able to see that she had learned to capture wild prey in total autonomy!

We followed her movements every day, we saw her explore central Italy and then return to the place she chose, and throughout this period we followed (and still follow) all her movements with curiosity. Chance, or perhaps just the attitude of this now so rare species, leads her to also explore historical nesting sites of Lanners.