This year we continued our monitoring efforts on key and emblematic species in Faia Brava. In the case of essential prey, the wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and the red partridge (Alectoris rufa), both showed positive results compared to last year. In the case of rupicolous birds, we verified the maintenance of our pairs of Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), britango ( Neophron percnopterus) and black stork (Ciconia nigra), also maintaining a high number of griffon vulture pairs (Gyps fulvus).
The Garrans represent one of the three breeds of horse (Eqqus caballus) native to Portugal.
Currently, in Portugal, this breed has around 1700 individuals, with the Transumância e Natureza association being one of the 617 Portuguese breeders.
In the Faia Brava Reserve, there are 27 horses divided into 3 herds. Each herd is made up of a stallion and four adult females plus offspring born in 2023. During 2023, 12 offspring were born in the Faia Brava Reserve, 6 males and 6 females. These numbers reveal a 100% success in the reproduction of our horses this year. Horses play a central role as ecosystem engineers in our reserve. These animals function as a very important tool in managing the reserve's vegetation, thus helping to prevent forest fires.
Following interventions in some ponds last year, in 2023 we carried out efforts to renaturalize our ponds. These are not only extremely important for fauna to be able to drink, but also for organisms such as amphibians and insects to complete their life cycles.
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