Conserving the Ridgway's Hawk in Punta Cana, DR

2014 has been a great year for the Ridgway’s Hawk. In our last report we mentioned that we increased our release efforts and brought 29 new hawks to PuntaCana. All of these individuals were able to be released at the hacksite in PuntaCana and with a lot of hard work, all fledged successfully. The last of the released hawks (currently six individuals continue to eat at the hacksite) are still returning to the hacksite to eat, but as the remaining hawks become independent and begin to hunt for themselves, they will stop returning to eat the food we have been providing. This year we released our first group of hawks on April 9^th and it wasn’t until the first week in June till we released the final group. The large group of individuals released has made this the longest hacking period that the project has ever had. In all, we have been at the release site every morning and every evening for close to 5 months and have purchased close to US $4000.00 in food (mostly laboratory raised rats) to feed the hawks.

A big part of our work is tracking and monitoring the birds when they are not at the release site. This is very important as it gives us the opportunity to further insure the success of each individual after they have become independent. These tracking expeditions often become educational excursions as we tell the story of the hawk and the conservation project to tourists, local farmers, security guards and anyone else we encounter. One of the biggest issues facing Ridgway’s Hawks in the Dominican Republic is persecution by humans. This is normally done by subsistence farmers who are accustomed to killing hawks to protect their chickens rather than protecting them with chicken coops. One person at a time, we are educating these farmers about the importance of the hawks and the work we are doing. We have even begun to provide chicken coops to some of these individuals and they really like to use them as it protects their valuable chickens from other predators as well. We also educate them about all the benefits that raptors provide to farmers in controlling agricultural pests such as mice and rats. The cooperation from these individuals is encouraging.

Another part of this monitoring is to learn what causes of mortality our released hawks may be facing. In nature it is normal for some individuals to parish in the process of reaching adult hood. In raptor populations in general, it is thought that between 70-80% of nestlings born in the wild will die during their first year. As mentioned before, persecution is one of the major causes of mortality for Ridgway’s Hawks and normally predation by other animals is also a big concern for nestling and fledgling raptors. In Ridgway’s, we have documented very low mortality rates due to predation, but have discovered a larger concern, electrocution on power lines. Fortunately for Ridgway’s Hawks in the PuntaCana area, Grupo PuntaCana continues to work on this issue. The PuntaCana Ecological Foundation and Grupo PuntaCana have already been working on these power lines for some time now since our first documented case of electrocution in 2011. In 2014, we brought in an expert in raptor electrocutions to review the power lines in the release area. During the 2014-2015 season, the power lines in PuntaCana will be undergoing a complete retrofitting. This will be done using specially designed products to insulate the energized wires on each pole. Retrofitting power lines is costly and the first phase of the project is expected to cost close to US $20,000.00.

While the 2014 release season is still going, preparations are underway for the following nesting season in LHNP and to release another group of approximately 25 hawks in Punta Cana. Dominican field technicians, Valentine Cespedez and Misael Calcano are tracking the hawks daily and bring encouraging reports that some of the newly released hawks have been consistently seen with B-44, the male hawk who hatched in the wild in PuntaCana in 2013. We have high expectations that we will be seeing more pairs of Ridgway’s Hawks in the Punta Cana area in 2015 and with this more hope for one of the most critically endangered raptors in the world.

2014 has been the most exciting and successful year yet for the Ridgway’s Hawk Conservation Project here in the Dominican Republic. In Punta Cana in 2013, we witnessed the formation of the first breeding pair of our released birds (2012 released female Red ND and 2011 released male Black AV). They successfully produced the first wild chick (male Blue 44) outside of the last stronghold of Ridgway’s Hawks in Los Haitises National Park. Early in 2014 we confirmed the second breeding pair which formed from two previously released individuals: 2009 released female Red SN and 2012 released male Black AN. Both pairs went on to build nests and incubate eggs. AV and ND were successful again and fledged two young male hawks on May 17^th. These birds are doing great and now that they are old enough to be left on their own, both parents are leaving the nest site in search of food to feed the youngsters until they have learned to hunt for themselves. Unfortunately, SN and AN were not successful as both of their eggs turned out to be infertile. They continue to remain together in their territory and we have high hopes that they will try again next year.

Due to last year’s successful nesting from AV and ND, The Peregrine Fund made plans to beef up release efforts, moving the project out of the experimental phase and begin releasing enough individuals to create a second population in Punta Cana. The new plan for 2014 was to release 25 new hawks in Punta Cana, more hawks than have been released in all years of the project combined (19 total in the Punta Cana area). This increase was only possible due to the grueling work of treating all the wild chicks in Los Haitises to prevent botfly infestations. Efforts to increase survivability of nestlings have more than doubled the numbers of chicks which survive to fledging age in the national park population. Thus we can leave a substantial number of chicks to fledge naturally in Los Haitises   and have more birds to release as part of the effort to expand the distribution of this critically endangered bird. The final total of released birds in 2014 was 29 individuals with the final release taking place on June 1^st.

Another first in 2014 was that we raised many of the chicks we released from about 5-7 days old until they were of age to be moved to the release site, about 35 days old. The hope was that this would enable the wild adults who produced these chicks in Los Haitises National Park to renest. This method seemed to work well as all of the pairs from which we took young nestlings eventually made a second attempt at nesting and many of the birds are currently raising their second round of nestlings.

Education is one of the most important aspects of any good conservation program. Here in Punta Cana it is essential that we make efforts to educate the surrounding communities about the work we are doing and the importance of the hawk. One of the best ways to help people to appreciate an animal is to make it something that they associate with having fun or something in which they can take pride. To this end, in 2014, we launched the very first Ridgway’s Hawk Day right here in Punta Cana, inviting school children from a nearby barrio to the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation to see and learn about Ridgway’s Hawks. The date we chose, May 25^th, is the day B-44 hatched last year (B-44 is the first wild chick hatched in Punta Cana and the first known chick hatched outside of the National Park population in more than 30 years). Many other educational activities were carried out including visits to local schools and visits to isolated communities in the area. As the population of Ridgway’s Hawks grows in Punta Cana, it will be essential to continue to grow our education efforts because the people who come into daily contact with these birds will potentially have a huge impact on their survivability as a species. Of course, in order to reach the Dominican communities here we need continued backing from our own community of support. Thank you so much for your interest in this project!