Por Redaccion Technical personnel and researchers from the Ministry of Environment, Housing, and Territorial Planning, the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC), and the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge have presented the conservation project of the capercaillie in Castilla y León to a group of Polish scientists. The prestigious Polish researcher Ewa Łukaszewicz, specialized in the reproduction of this species, along with Artur Kowalczyk and Mariusz Rydzik (Leżajsk Forest District), have visited the breeding center in Valsemana, in León, for three days to learn about the species monitoring and habitat restoration and improvement work being carried out in the Community.
March 22, 2025
Castilla y León | Ministry of Environment, Housing, and Territorial Planning
Polish technicians and researchers experts in the conservation and captive breeding of the capercaillie have visited the facilities of the breeding center in León this week and the habitat improvement work that the Junta is carrying out in Laciana and Alto Sil in collaboration with INIA-CSIC and the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.
The visit was led by the Head of Natural Spaces, Flora, and Fauna Service of the Junta, David Cubero; the technical teams of the capercaillie breeding center in Valsemana and the bear and capercaillie patrols of the Natural Heritage Foundation, and the researcher Julian Santiago, responsible for the Research Group on Physiology and Reproductive Technologies in Wildlife of INIA-CSIC.
For three days, the technical teams from the Junta, INIA-CSIC, MITECO, and Poland have shared the different lines of work developed in both countries, with a special emphasis on captive breeding of the capercaillie. In this sense, the progress and research lines in the field have been presented, focusing on the collaboration that the Ministry of Environment, Housing, and Territorial Planning maintains with INIA-CSIC since the beginning of the captive breeding project, positioning Valsemana as an international reference in research on the reproductive biology of this species and in the development of reproductive technologies to complement the ex situ conservation program.
This is allowing the generation of applied scientific knowledge to the reproduction of the capercaillie with numerous publications and ongoing lines of work, covering subjects such as ethology, health monitoring, physiology, artificial reproduction, the implementation of non-invasive methods for monitoring stress and reproductive activity. Specifically, this visit is part of the collaboration between the Junta of Castilla y León, INIA-CSIC, and the University of Wroclaw (Poland) in the research project funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the State Research Agency, and the European Union NextGeneration EU/PRTR (TED2021-130581B-I00).
The stay of the Polish team was also used to visit the habitat improvement and ecosystem restoration work that the Junta is carrying out in Laciana and Alto Sil with the aim of increasing the structural diversity, both in the aerial and shrub strata, and the specific diversity of the wooded masses of current presence or recent disappearance of the capercaillie, improving the transitability of the masses and the availability of food, providing these habitats with a mosaic structure, representing a variety of favorable environments for the development of the different vital phases of the capercaillie. These actions also contribute to reducing the risk of habitat loss due to fires, making the masses more resilient to the effects of forest fires.
The improvement of forest masses as capercaillie habitat is a priority action to contribute to the recovery of this species and achieve the project’s objectives. The success of the recovery of the Cantabrian capercaillie and the rest of the planned actions to reverse its conservation status require improvements in the environment so that the species finds the most favorable environment possible to recover and return to occupy the areas it has recently abandoned.
The abandonment of the mountain, traditional clearing activities, and firewood extraction are resulting in forest densification with the consequent loss of structural diversity and suitable habitat for the species. A clear relationship has been demonstrated between abandoned singing grounds and forest densification, so restoring these practices through forestry is crucial to have a quality habitat for the species.
The objective of these actions is to allow proper circulation of the capercaillie to facilitate, among other things, access to food, detection of predators, and escape in case of attack. These actions should focus on flight (branches, trunks), on the ground (shrub or sub-shrub stratum cover), or both. It also seeks to ensure the capercaillie’s food supply at any time of the year and the bird’s development stage, and to achieve habitats that facilitate the capercaillie’s stay through actions to improve visibility and protect against predators, provide competitive advantages over competitors, and enable suitable areas for display during the breeding season.