Bird of prey that attacked women and children in a Spanish town is captured

The Harris's hawk, with a one-metre wingspan, had escaped from a falconry fan and terrified the residents of Tobarra for several days

J.M.L.

Monday, 28 March 2022, 11:28

It measures barely half-a-metre in length and has a wingspan of just over a metre. Its appearance is majestic, typical of eagles, but when stressed it can cause serious damage to humans.

This has just been verified by the residents of Tobarra, a town of 7,700 inhabitants in Albacete, who for a few days were forced to live with one more ‘neighbour’, a specimen of a Harris’s hawk, a medium-large bird of prey that breeds from the southwestern United States south to Chile, central Argentina, and Brazil. Its scientific name is Parabuteo unicinctus.

Attack humans

The hawk belongs to a falconry fan in Murcia, but it escaped several weeks ago and decided to settle in Tobarra. The problem is that the raptor began to attack the humans, especially women and children, it met on the street. The panic spread in this municipality bordering the Murcia region and environmental agents from Albacete province had to intervene in collaboration with the Seprona Nature Protection Service of the Guardia Civil.

Surveillance watchtowers

The capture was not easy because it moved around the electricity poles of the town that it used as surveillance watchtowers. Officers had to use live bird decoys, meat, traps, snares and nets, until the Harris's hawk finally succumbed.

The bird was transferred to the Albacete Wild Fauna Recovery Centre, run by the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha. This brown-plumaged raptor is "in perfect health," according to the centre and had an identification ring after being bred in captivity.

Both the environmental agents and Seprona highlighted the capture since the presence of these non-native birds can represent a real danger to the survival of native species.

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