The Rock Partridge of Sicily: photographic and informative exhibition aimed at safeguarding and protecting this splendid and rare bird; in Ficuzza (PA) on 28, 29 and 30 March 2014.
"The Sicilian Rock Partridge" is the theme of an exhibition organized as part of the LIFE + European project "SICALECONS - Urgent actions for the conservation of the Sicilian Rock Partridge, Alectoris graeca whitakeri Schiebel, 1934", aimed at safeguarding and protecting this splendid and rare bird. The exhibition will be held at the Real Casina di Caccia, in Ficuzza (PA) on 28, 29 and 30 March 2014, 9.00-12.30 and 13.30-16.00. Free admission. In the exhibition, in addition to being exhibited, the ecology, biology and main threat factors of the Sicilian Rock Partridge, the various phases of the project are illustrated, through a series of photographic and educational panels. The project is carried out by the Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies of the University of Palermo together with other important institutional partners such as the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Rural and Territorial Development of the Regional Department of Agriculture, Development Rural and Mediterranean Fishing of the Sicilian Region and the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute for Sicily.
The exhibition, curated by the Silene Cooperative, is part of the actions planned within the project to raise awareness and make Sicilians aware of this splendid animal, exclusive to Sicily.
The Sicilian rock partridge is an endemic subspecies present exclusively in Sicily. It belongs to the order of the Galliformes, has medium size (females around 300 grams, males around 600 grams) and frequents open environments with low vegetation where it actively looks for seeds and insects it eats. For a good part of the year it lives in groups called brigades which disintegrate before the reproductive season (February-March) forming territorial pairs. Egg laying, from 8 to 16, takes place in spring on camouflaged nests between rock crevices or at the base of shrubs. The chicks leave the nest shortly after birth and have a plum-colored plumage that will acquire the adult livery between September and October after the first moult.
The Rock Partridge of Sicily was once abundant throughout the Sicilian territory. The descriptions of the scholars have given us the image of countryside where numerous and common were the brigades of this bird and even "in the markets the rock partridges could be bought at very low prices". It is from the second half of the twentieth century that the populations began to suffer a slow and steady decline due to various factors such as poaching, fires and the alteration and destruction of suitable habitats, which ended up relegating it to a few areas. mostly reserves and natural parks. For this reason, the Sicilian Rock Partridge has rightly been included in the list of priority species of protection of the European Directive "Birds".
To prevent its definitive extinction, the Department of Agriculture of the Sicilian Region and the European Commission have signed an agreement for the realization of a complex protection project called LIFE + "SICALECONS - Urgent actions for the conservation of the Sicilian Rock Partridge, Alectoris graeca whitakeri Schiebel , 1934 ”in which various public bodies have collaborated such as the Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies of the University of Palermo, the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute for Sicily and the Department of Rural and Territorial Development. The designated intervention area is the “Monte Cofano, Capo San Vito and Monte Sparagio” Special Protection Area located in the province of Trapani, between the municipalities of San Vito lo Capo, Castellammare del Golfo and Custonaci.
Within this site of community importance, both a preliminary study of the Sicilian rock partridge population and of the specific threat factors was carried out, as well as floristic and faunistic surveys, genetic studies and the elaboration of a thematic cartography. Subsequently, environmental improvement actions and removal or control of the main threat factors (such as fires and the wild boar population) were carried out and at the same time direct actions were carried out to increase the population through the release of individuals born and raised in special aviaries.
The purpose of the exhibition is to make this wonderful animal exclusive to our island known to an audience of non-experts and to disseminate the interventions made for its protection, aware that without direct involvement of the population every design effort is in vain.
18 March 2014
Source: Palermo Today