An amendment to the Nature Protection Act published in this week’s Gibraltar Gazette has added a level of protection to members of the Crow family.

A statement from the Government follows below:

Schedule 3 of the Nature Protection Act seeks to protect two main categories of species: (1) those that are ‘special’ to Gibraltar, because they have restricted global distributions, and (2) species that are particularly vulnerable to human pressures.

Although some species are associated with humans and urban environments, historically crows have been very susceptible to human impact, most notably through poisoning.

There was a time, during the 1980s and 1990s, when there were no crow species that were regularly found in Gibraltar. This was followed by the recolonisation of a pair of Common Ravens and, more recently, Eurasian Jackdaws nesting on the Tower of Homage. Their populations in Gibraltar are very small and the loss of even one individual could lead to local extinction.

Crows are highly intelligent birds, often regarded to have great character, and have long been associated with humans. Apart from the resident members of the family, other crow species occasionally occur in Gibraltar, including species found elsewhere in Iberia such as the Magpie and Iberian Magpie, and vagrants from further afield, such as Hooded Crow, Indian House Crow and African Pied Crow, one of which has spent several months now in the area of Europa Point.

By affording them the strictest protection under Gibraltar’s wildlife conservation legislation, we aim to insulate crows from any non-natural impacts that could prejudice their presence on the Rock.