Estepona City Council expands the installation of nesting boxes for bats and nocturnal birds of prey in the municipality

The initiative, developed together with the naturalist group ‘Grunsber’, contemplates the placement of some 150 boxes and has included today an environmental activity with students from CEIP Federico García Lorca.

The Estepona City Council reports that it has carried out today an environmental education activity with schoolchildren of CEIP Federico García Lorca, focused on the installation of nest boxes for bats and small nocturnal raptors, such as the scops owl, in different areas of the municipality.

This initiative is part of the project promoted by the Sierra Bermeja Naturalist Group ‘Grunsber’, which has a municipal grant and will significantly increase the number of artificial shelters for these protected species. In total, around 150 nest boxes will be placed in different urban and peri-urban areas of Estepona.

During the day, the participating students received an explanation about the environmental importance of bats and other birds of prey, as well as the fundamental role they play in the balance of urban ecosystems. Subsequently, they have been able to see how the nest boxes are placed together with those responsible for the naturalist group and technicians of the Environment of the City Council itself.

From Grunsber have stressed that bats play a crucial role in the biological control of beaches, as they are large consumers of insects. In fact, a single bat can ingest up to 150 mosquitoes a day, which helps to naturally reduce the presence of nuisance species and potentially harmful to public health.

They also recalled that all bat species are protected by state and European legislation due to their ecological importance and the decline of their populations in many natural environments.

For its part, the European scops owl is the smallest of our nocturnal birds of prey and is also considered a vulnerable species according to the Red Book of Birds of Spain 2021. It is also beneficial for human communities because it is a great predator of insects, since its diet is based mainly on invertebrates of considerable size, such as moths, crickets, grasshoppers and cockroaches, among others.

With this project, the City Council reinforces its commitment to biodiversity conservation and environmental awareness among young people, promoting actions that favor coexistence between wildlife and the urban environment.