After Camilla, Carlotta too died by electrocution

Less than two months before completing her first year of life in freedom, Carlotta also stopped flying. She passed away after 14 days of intensive care at CRAS Lago di Vico, following an electrocution incident. She is yet another victim of a silent tragedy: every year, dozens, if not hundreds, of birds of prey die electrocuted on power pylons, often invisible to citizens but lethal to wildlife.

Carlotta spent the winter inside the Litorale Romano Nature Reserve in Ostia (RM), avoiding all danger, just a few kilometers away from where Ambra was also present. In spring, she moved towards Tuscany, where she was spotted in good health, hunting pigeons in peri-urban environments between Florence, Arezzo, and finally Reggello, where she was rescued.

The recovery was immediate. However, from the first clinical examination, the signs were unmistakable: electrocution. One leg showed early-stage necrosis, while one wing was bleeding from self-inflicted wounds caused by the behavioral reaction to the pain of the electric shock.

Treatments were initiated following protocols for electrocuted patients, with the addition of experimental drugs and innovative therapies, including laser therapy and forced nutritional support. Unfortunately, as happens in almost all similar cases, the progressive deterioration of vital organs proved fatal. Carlotta stopped feeding herself, and despite all efforts, she did not survive.

With her passing, the project lost the last specimen released during the 2024 season. The list is now long and tragic:

• Carmine: collision with an electrical cable
• Cesare: natural death
• Camilla: electrocution
• Calogero: victim of poaching
• Carlotta: electrocution

The toll is devastating: 80% of losses are due to human-related causes, 75% of which are directly linked to interactions with electrical infrastructures.

Data collected from other projects involving the release of young birds of prey and large birds into the wild confirm the same alarming trend: increasing urbanization and the disappearance of open environments force these predators to use electricity pylons as perches and observation points. A natural behavior that, in a human-modified and unsecured environment, turns into a death sentence.

Electrocution mortality is not an accident — it is a certainty. And without structural interventions, it will continue to systematically affect every year, every project, every territory.