130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

tions: a continuous population in central Europe
covering eastern Austria, Slovakia, Hungary,
Serbia and western Romania (Carpathian Basin);
a population in southern Ukraine, Moldova and
southeast Romania; and an assumed population
in Bulgaria [8] , where its range has contracted since
1945 [5, 9] . The species’ range used to include southeastern
European Russia, but disappeared from
this region by the early 21st century [10] .
No. of breeding pairs
800
600
400
200
Habitat preferences
The Saker falcon is a typical steppe species,
preferring open landscapes, and in Europe inhabits
wooded steppes, agricultural areas and mountain
foothills [11] . The species specialises in hunting small
to medium sized diurnal rodents, Suslik (Spermophilus
citellus) in particular, but will also take birds,
such as Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and Domestic
pigeons (Columba livia forma domestica) [9] .
Like other falcon species, Saker fuses nests
constructed by other species, such as Eastern
imperial eagle (Aquila heliaca), White-tailed eagle
(Haliaeetus albicilla), Raven (Corvus corax) and
Common buzzard (Buteo buteo) [4, 12] . Nests are
traditionally in tall trees and on cliffs, but recently
the species began using electricity pylons and
currently the majority of pairs in Central and
Eastern Europe nest on pylons [8, 9] .
Legal protection and conservation status
The Saker falcon is listed in Appendix II of CITES,
Annex I of the EU Birds Directive, Annex II of the
Bern Convention and Annex II of the Convention
on Migratory Species [13] .
0
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
Abundance:
current status and changes
2000
2002
2004
Although reliable data are not available before
the 1980s [8] , it was evident that the Saker falcon
experienced significant declines across its range
in Europe since the mid-1900s [5, 9, 15, 26–29] . The key
populations in Hungary and Ukraine, for example,
were estimated at just 30 and 30–40 pairs, respectively,
by 1980 [8, 28, 30–32] . According to the most recent
estimates of population size (Table 2), the European
population of Saker falcon numbers approximately
740 pairs and appears to be increasing.
The population in the Carpathian Basin, which
makes up more than 40% of the total population
in Europe, has been recovering since the 1980s,
mainly driven by large increases in Hungary and
Slovakia [30, 33, 34] , but also in Austria where the species
2006
2008
2010
2012
Figure 1.
Number of Saker
falcon breeding pairs
in Europe since 1990,
showing the total
and the Carpathian
Basin population
(Austria, Hungary,
Serbia, Slovakia)
separately, based on
the Species Action
Plan [9] , BirdLife
International [15] , and
other key sources.
Figure 2.
Current distribution
of Saker falcon
in Europe and
historical
distribution in the
1980s [30] .
205