The death of Camilla: a consideration about the dangers of power lines for birds.

We haven’t even had time to rejoice with you about the successes of the releases’s season of 2024, as we are here to tell you some very bad news.
Camilla, the first falcon born in our center in 2024, and free for months now, died due to irreparable injuries caused by electrocution. The project operators, who follow the lanners constantly keep a close eye on their movements thanks to GPS, installed on every animal that is released. Through the large collaboration network created in time, we sent a check, following the evaluation of the anomalous movements detected by the GPS, and upon the arrival of the volunteers, the situation immediately appeared very serious: Camilla had both feet burned, with some toes already necrotized, just as its right wing. The electrocution damage was irreparable, especially at such an advanced stage: we asked to proceed with euthanasia, to put an end to that suffering, but she died during the veterinary visit.

Camilla was in Sicily, where she had settled several days ago, moving around province of Palermo. An amazing result: one of our young falcons settled in the land of the Lanner falcons, and she had gone there completely independently!
Camilla, then followed by her brothers was the our first release success with the hacking methodology, with individuals raised on social imprinting, which have learned to fly and hunt, adapting perfectly to life in nature. Unfortunately nature has many issues now, and dangers, both natural and anthropogenic, are everywhere. This time, it was the case of one of the most discussed anthropic structures, together with wind turbines, in relation to the impact on avifauna: a medium voltage pylon in the municipality of Monreale (PA).

The LIFE Lanner project has taken steps to secure power lines in environments potentially frequented by lanner falcons in Latium region. We protected against electrocution approximately 30 km of medium voltage lines, represented by 363 poles, more than expected from this project milestone, and certainly a great result among Italian LIFE projects.
However, the Italian territory is vast, and has more than 1,200,000 km of power lines among low, medium and high tension lines.

We have involved you since the birth of this lanner, on April 1, 2024, and in its first movements, when in June she flew to Puglia, and after 1500 km traveled in 5 days, she returned almost to the starting point. She was finally recovered just a few km from the hacking site, a bit weakened by hunger. Back to full strenght, she remained for another month around the hacking area, and then on July 27 she went again to Puglia, travelling almost the same route! But this time, after five days, she returned alone to the hacking box! From from this moment on, she only made small movements, returning to eat occasionally, and moving away in the presence of the operators, having lost the trust to humans. Around mid-August she started dispersing from what had been her safe haven all this time. She crossed southern Italy, passing through Campania, stopping in Calabria, escaping all the dangers she could have encountered, then crossing the Strait of Messina, flying over the Nebrodi Park and along the Madonie Park, until she settled near the Bosco della Ficuzza: a wonderful area for this species, whose population, not surprisingly, still manages to survive in these territories.

Unfortunately, however, she encountered a real trap: an agricultural field, full of easy preys, where the only perches were electric poles. Under the same pole 2 common buzzard and a raver were found dead too. A real big problem for big birds in the area.

We will continue to strive to bring these amazing birds of prey back to our territories, fighting against all the limits that our species has imposed on wild animals. This time Camilla flew away, and now no one can stop her. A big thank you goes to Angelo Scuderi and Andrea Corso, ornithologists of the GTR (Group Tutela Rapaci), who promptly went to the site following our report, and recovered the animal, quickly taking it to the Regional Wildlife Recovery Centre Selvatica di Palermo.