– it can reach 2.5 meters with its extended wings – which disappeared from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 19th century, although it continues to live in the Scandinavian countries. More than a century later, the first chicken of this species has just been born in Castilla y León thanks to (native fauna rehabilitation group and its habitat). “The recovery of a species is a joy, it is a historical milestone for Spanish biodiversity,” says Ernesto Álvarez, president of the conservation entity. The project, funded by the Ministry for Ecological Transition, started in 2021 in Asturias and Cantabria, but the entry of new specimens was paralyzed after criticism of biologists and environmentalists. The couples formed have already begun to raise.
“The Pigargo is the largest eagle in Europe and disappeared in Spain because of the persecution to which it was subjected. Luckily, now it is gradually recovering positions,” says Álvarez. Grefa released 25 copies in Asturias and Cantabria, of which there are 17, among which six couples have formed. “They are very few for such a large country, but we are demonstrating that with little that couples are given, they move forward, establish and raise,” he continues.
The copy, a male, was born last May. With less than two months of life, the entity’s workers briefly took it out of the nest to mark it with a GPS – it is a species capable of traveling thousands of kilometers – and then it already weighed 3.5 kilos, which gives an idea of the size of this raptor, which can exceed five in its adult life.
The parents are two reintroduced piguses of four years of age, the Pimiago male and the mansole female, whose names honor the Asturian town that hosts the reintroduction project of the species and its dialect, respectively. The location of the nest has not been publicly revealed “to avoid any disturbance for this first -time couple of European Pigargo and its chicken,” says the entity. “We thought that the first chicken was going to take a little longer, although we are used to the fact that the recovery of species will move forward to our forecasts, as it has also happened to us with the cerníricalo primilla or other species. It does not usually happen that criss so fast, it is a beastly joy,” says the president.
Grefa’s workers and volunteers of the so -called Pigargo Project followed the reproductive couple for more than 500 hours in the spring and summer of this year. In mid -2024, this team detected that the couple ruled a territory, being able to confirm the process of building a nest in a tree from February 2025. At the end of last March the female of European Pigargo began to incubate already the beginning of May was born the first European Pigargo chicken in Spain.
The Ministry for Ecological Transition (Miteco), which considers this extinct raptor in Spain, promoted in 2021 a pigos reintroduction project – taken from Norway – led by Grefa with the approval of Asturias and Cantabria, with which 25 copies were released in the Cantabrian cornice. The department chaired by Sara Aagesen invested 360,000 euros in the recovery of the species.
But the project does not like everyone. Several scientists and environmental entities – such as Ecologists in Action Asturias and SEO/Birdlife – warned of the alleged problems that the raptor could generate, both to fishing and livestock and other species. These criticisms led to Asturias and Cantabria, who in 2021 supported the initiative, got off the ship in 2023, leaving birds in an administrative limbo complex: the specimens are still free and monitored – which 17 – but they cannot be released more, as Grefa planned to reintroduce the species. In fact, ecological transition has stopped financing the project.
Perhaps that is why the birth has occurred in another community, Castilla y León, thanks to the collaboration of the Board of that community. According to the environmental entity, the technical support of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Environmental Agents of the Junta de Castilla y León has also been counted on the marking with GPS in the nest of this chicken.
