The collaborative work on ‘Re-wilding’ between the Department of the Environment and GONHS (the Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society), which has already successfully re-established the populations of the Barbary partridge and the European Rabbit on the Rock, continues and has entered possibly its most exciting stage. 

Vincent Robba and the Rehabilitation Team, including Gilbert Gonzalez and Stanley Olivero, have this year successfully bred and released two young Bonelli’s Eagles from a secret location on the Upper Rock. The Bonelli’s Eagle is a medium-sized eagle which nested on the Rock until the middle of the 20th Century, possibly being lost, as other species were, due to disturbance during World War II.

A captive pair of Bonelli’s Eagle reared two young at the Bird of Prey Centre this spring. The young birds were transferred to the release site, a facility constructed by the Upper Rock Team led by Reuben Senior, and their release was carefully monitored by the team and by Wildlife Warden Chris Durante. 

The plan is to repeat this process every year, with the hope that once the eagles have matured, they will return to the Rock and once again nest here in the wild as they did for centuries in the past.

There are plans to continue this re-wilding work, aimed at restoring Gibraltar’s biodiversity as much as possible.