Conserving the Ridgway's Hawk in Punta Cana, DR

Since the last report the first natural born Ridgway’s Hawk in Punta Cana, B44, has become totally independent and is now living around the residential area of Tortuga Bay within the Puntacana Resort & Club property. When the last report was posted the parents of B44 were still hunting for him but slowly he began hunting on his own and expanding his territory until recently when he stopped returning to his parents’ territory for meals. Over the next year he will most likely continue to explore  until he settles on an area that suits him best. B44’s birth helped spur a flurry of local media attention to the plight of the Ridgway’s Hawk and other critically endangered birds in the Dominican Republic. Accompanying this report are photos of two articles that appeared in some of the more widely circulated newspapers in the Dominican Republic: Hoy and El Nacional.

As for the parents (AV & ND), they are still together and living in and around the area where they nested several months ago. Typically Ridgway’s Hawks form a pair for life and will mate/lay eggs every year. Our hope is that AV & ND will mate again in early 2014 only this time ND hopefully will lay two or more eggs!

In other news, AN, one of the males without a mate has moved into SN’s (a female’s) territory around the Puntacana Village. SN has yet to mate with any of the other hawks in the area and we are hoping these two might form the next pair. To back this assertion up, one of the conservationists recently observed SN & AN flying in circles together, a typical behavior with hawks that are courting.

Finally, as we reach the end of 2013 we are looking to expand and build off of this year’s successes in 2014. The Peregrine Fund hopes to reintroduce as many as 20 hawks to Punta Cana and along with our project partners at Fundacion Propa-Gas, launch an even more expansive awareness campaign. To prepare for this initiative Fundacion Propa-Gas, The Peregrine Fund, and the Puntacana Ecological Foundation recently recreated the educational brochure based off of feedback from this year’s initiatives (see the accompanying photos) we are also exploring publishing other potential materials such as children’s books and t-shirts to help raise awareness about our efforts to protect this amazing bird. In order to dramatically increase the number of hawks to be reintroduced to the area we are preparing to construct new hack boxes and observational decks to handle the increased number of birds. If you have a chance to visit Punta Cana in 2014 we recommend you come and visit the Puntacana Ecological Foundation as this should be quite a site to see!

• Publicity by Dominican Newspaper El Nacional (PDF)