The Government of Aragon has opened an investigation to determine the cause of the death of dozens of cranes at the wetland of the Alboré’s pool, along with the Sotonera reservoir, in the province of Huesca.

It is a regular resting place of thousands of cranes, between 4,000 and 5,000, which for years spent winter in this area and then return to northern Europe.

Pablo Vallés, educator and environmental disseminator, who runs the interpretation center of Alboré’s pool, located in the town of Montmesa, was the one who found the dead birds and gave the voice of alarm.

As recorded on social networks, on November 12 it was “one of those days that you do not want to live. In a routine visit through the interior of the pool, I found several scattered dead cranes, a terrible and macabre image that made me
Feel as it had been a long time since I felt in nature. ”

He called 112 to make it known as the agents of protection of the nature of the Government of Aragon.
While, he ran through the surface of the wetland, which these days are still very low, in order to help in the location of the corpses.

First he found 17 dead copies “not naturally, with clear symptoms of having perished because of some toxic”, and later four depredated by fox “in places of good visibility, which gave to understand that he had taken advantage of the weakness of the
Birds to perform the attack “.

Nature protection agents collected the birds with special protective suits following the protocol designed by possible avian influenza, a cause that, according to Vallés, was discarded in the first analyzes carried out in the center of Alfranca in Zaragoza.

Therefore, subsequently, samples were sent to a reference laboratory to detect possible toxic: “The most usual have already been discarded and are still looking for other types.”

In the following days, more corpses were located, most of them depredated by the fox, until there are almost 60 dead cranes.

Valleys assures that “During this time the sides of Grunts practically disappeared from the wetland and I suspect that seeing to die in that form their companions made them feel that the place was not safe.”

In a normal situation, at this time there would be about 4,000 or 5,000 cranes and now “we have a few hundred as much.”

After the investigation open by the Agriculture Counseling of the Aragonese Government, it is waiting to know the toxic one that has ended with the life of the Avas in the Alboré’s pool, one of the main areas of passage of the cranes after the
Laguna de Gallocanta, where it is estimated that about 19,000 have already arrived.

The cranes are some large birds, with a height that can reach the meter and a half, of gray ash, white and with a characteristic red occipital stain.

They spend the winter at certain places in northern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, while in spring and summer they are located in northern Europe, in countries such as Germany, Finland, Norway or Estonia.

In the albroé’s pool they make two migratory steps, very influenced by the climate, one between February and March and another in November.

The hours of arrival are throughout the day as they are looking for places to feed, but largely it occurs at sunset since they use the wetland as a sleepingman.

The cranes seek an aquatic medium for overnight from predators, because the sound of the splash produced by them, the alerts of their stalking.

In his migration from Africa and north, breeding place in which they will live all summer, cross the Gallocanta Laguna to go to the Landes whose route goes by Pamplona and at the time of climbing towards Europe van with wind against and this
It forces them to go through the albroé’s pool.

That is, the years with the most windy, you can see countless of them and the years of less wind their presence is lower.

The Alboré pool, is located next to the Sotonera reservoir, in the village of Montmesa, where you can visit the Bird Interpretation Center that opened its doors in 2001.

Pablo Vallés is responsible for publicizing the biodiversity of flora and fauna of the wetland and the natural environment.

Each year activities are held in the surroundings to this natural habitat, such as a migration observation marathon from 8.00 to 20.00, even on occasion the observation is nocturnal;
Days of Scientific Acience of Birds with the Oscense Ornithological Group;
An environmental itinerary by the green trail, talks, movie projection and a march BTT around the pool that goes for the 10th edition.