Raptors are the group of birds who have evolved especially for meat consumption from both live and carrion prey, developing morphologic characteristics only attributable to voracious raptor predators.
Examples of this are their sharped and curved claws; a curved, strong and cutting peak, designed to tear up the prey’s meat, or even their sharp vision, able to see five to eight times better than we do.
Ethimologically speaking, the term raptor comes from latin term rapare, in other words, to take by force, abduct or take over, very precise in the nature of these animals, which have unbeatable capture methods among the animal kingdom, and that have fascinated humans for thousands of years.
Raptors have known how to adapt to the great variety of environments and ecosystems in the world, existing hundreds of several species found all across the globe, in temperate, warm and rainy climates, conquering lands and skies from south to north, except for the Antarctica.
Some have even managed to adapt to desert and rainforest areas, and also large cities. Raptors have surprised us with their adaptability and evolutionary facility.
Species
In our country, we have a total of 27 raptor species, which we can roughly classify into night and day raptors, having falcons, eagles, sparrow hawks, caracaras and vultures among day raptors, while we have owls among night raptors. All species are of great impressiveness and importance for nature, that must be shown and spread in order to protect them.
Among the most interesting raptors we can find in the Chilean territory, we highlight the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), which is named after its migratory activity, comparable to journeys done by church pilgrims.
It is the fastest recorded animal on Earth, reaching from 320 to 440 km/h which is achieved thanks to its particular hunting method, which consists in plummeting from great heights to impact on prey flying under him, killing them inmediately before eating them later.
Its habitat in general ranges open areas, natural meadows, valleys, rocky ledges, coastal areas, cliffs, cities and wherever there is abundant food.
This species is fundamental for urban zones, because it’s in charge of controlling the population of pigeons (Columba livia), species that makes big part of its diet and is very harmful for humans for the diseases it transmits and damage done to infrastructures.
Another extremely interesting species is the rufous-tailed hawk (Buteo ventralis). Endemical to native forests in the southern cone of the Americas, almost extict in Argentina and very scarce in Chile, to the point it’s been estimated a population of almost 1.000 adult specimens, placing it as the highest threatened raptor and the one with the highest conservation issues in our country.
Due to issues ranging from poisoning, fragmentation of their habitat due to native forest felling and illegal hunting, this species, in particular, is known for being “who feeds up in coops and takes away the chicks”.
Nonetheless, i’s important to emphasise that people are resposible of building anti-predator infrastructure necessary to protect and guarantee safety for our poultry.
At the same time, we have the owl (Tyto furcata tuidara), a night raptor species extremely important, found from Arica to Tierra del Fuego, and which is important for rodent control. In fact, it’s been estimated that an owl can consume about a thousand mice a year.
It’s not less to consider that this species prefers to consume the long-tailed colilargo mouse (Oligoryzomys longicaudatus), reservoir host for hantavirus. So it’s a contribution to the control of species transmitting zoonotic diseases and, at the same time, introduced rodent species that affect agricultural systems and displace native species.
Causes of death
Unfortunately owls have a big conservation issue, which is habitat fragmentation by road infrastructure. It happens that the main cause of death for owls is road accidents. As Predators of Chile we have counted up to 106 owls killed at Route 5 in 500 kilometres of motorway, one owl every 4.8 kilometres and an incalculable damage to the welfare of the ecosystems this species inhabits.
Unfortunately there aren’t any state or private measures that manage to mitigate this issue. However, we hope to start a project that helps us resolve this big issue soon.
In conclusion, conservation issues currently affecting raptors are large, higlighting road accidents, poaching, poisoning and electrocution, being primarily caused by humans, which doesn’t suit how important raptors are for us.
They are therefore the main biological controllers of pagues transmitting zoonotic diseases, besides playing a key role in ecosystem balance, containing native and introduced species, and working as an ‘umbrella’ in habitats they are found in.
Facing the need of rescuing the importance of raptors and spreading it to the world, that how the ‘Raptors of Chile’ NGO is established, thanks to just a 15-year-old boy (the founder), whose objective is to help to the conservation and defence of raptors across Chile.
Today with 35 active members and more than five years of career path, it has been the main hotbed for teenagers to become interested in the protection of wildlife, especially raptors, besides contributing with countless causes thanks to the three teams that shape it (Metropolitan, Bío Bío and Los Lagos), having a training record of more than 40.000 people, a sign of the arduous work in communicating the message of conservation.