Region of Murcia: an otter specimen has been run over on the road that connects the A-30 towards Madrid from the Estrella industrial estate as it passes through the Cañada Morcillo Rambla, which connects to the Salar Gordo, a wetland area of great importance in the municipality, which drains the water from the Coto Pictures to the Segura drains river, together with the Rambla de las Monjas.
They request the ministry to include the three channels in the otter recovery plan as a critical area, as well as an ecological corridor between the Segura River and Coto Cuadros.
With this outrage, we reaffirm the enormous importance for biodiversity of a network of ecological corridors connecting different natural areas, such as the canals (acequias and Azarbes) of the traditional garden and boulevards, where a wide variety of species find shelter and protection . food. , as is the case with the nutria.
The specimen found last Wednesday by members of Ecologistas en Acción was an adult whose death occurred as a result of a ran over probably by a motor vehicle. The discovery of the body was brought to the attention of environmental officers of the region, who confirmed his death. Already in 2017, another otter was found on the national highway at the Cañada Morcillo intersection.
In addition to the loss this entails for wildlife, this also shows that its expansion is a reality. Since 2010, the return of an animal that disappeared from the Segura River in the 1960s and 1970s has been confirmed, due to water degradation caused by highly polluting discharges and solid plastic waste, causing a huge caused human deaths. fish on which the species feeds.
Otter attack in the Murcia region
Little by little, habitat and water quality have improved, allowing the recovery of the fish populations that provide food for the country. nutria the only mammal that eats fish in the river) and its presence is an indicator of biodiversity. Today the otter is found from the headwaters to the mouth of the Segura River. However, the lack of spaces connecting the different areas in which it can survive leaves us with news abuse more often.
Although the measures contributing to its conservation include avoiding the pollution of rivers and protecting their banks, removing artificial barriers or proper management of water use – control of irrigation, canalization, water quality and ecological flow – necessary, etc. In addition to applying environmental impact legislation to all work carried out in waterways, it is clear that if the possibility of migration to species, such as the nutriait will be impossible to protect them.
This, in addition to the measures described – which have been progressing with greater or less success in the region – is achieved through the establishment of protected spaces that include favorable habitats and ecological corridors that connect them. These actions require a serious exercise in planning the use of spaces and recovery plans, their approval and implementation, providing sufficient resources and political will for adequate management of the regional environment.
Although the nutria (Lutra lutra) is considered of “special concern” by the National Catalog of Threatened Species. It is included in Annexes II and IV, which correspond to “animal and plant species of Community interest, for the conservation of which it is necessary to designate special natural areas” and “animal and plant species of Community interest requiring strict protection”, of the Habitats. Directive (92/43/EEC); to be listed as a vulnerable species in the Red Book of Spanish Vertebrates, classified as of “special interest”, protected by the International CITES Convention – which classifies the species as in danger of extinction due to trade, and therefore it is expressly prohibited. , and listed in Annex II to the Berne Convention, among the animals whose risk of extinction is serious and requires special care for their recovery, continues to require an effort from the authorities to ensure their conservation, almost eight years after its adoption of the recovery plan.
Ecologists in Action confirm this with this new one ran over makes visible the capital importance for biodiversity of a well-structured network of ecological corridors between different natural areas, the preservation of canals (ditches andabes) of the traditional garden, as well as boulevards and riverbeds, for their values as wetlands and for providing shelter and food for a wide variety of species, such as the otter. That is why it recently asked those responsible at the Ministry of the Environment to comply not only with the expansion of the Ajauque and Rambla Salada Protected Natural Area, but also the wetlands and riverbeds bordering the Natura 2000 network.