Let’s go for a cycle! Before the arrival of spring, the voles wreak havoc on the Jura pastures. The Franches-Montagnes are on the front line, but a new weapon will be brandished against the invader who eats the equivalent of its weight in roots every day: the kestrel!
According to the report of the “Jurassic Daily”, certain agricultural areas are devastated in the Breuleux, the Bois, the Noirmont and on the side of the Communances. To encourage the presence of winged predators, ornithologists from the association for the study and protection of birds “Le Pélerin” will place nesting boxes, to compensate for the scarcity of natural nesting sites.
Trapping and gassing
“Some places are black like the painting”, so much so that farms are in danger, according to the testimony of Yann-David Varenne, of the “Interjurassian Rural Foundation”. Given the large size of the domains, trapping and gassing are discouraging, hence the idea of favoring natural predators.
If a fox eliminates 4,000 voles per year, a common kestrel removes five times more. The association “Parc de Doubs”, which includes 16 municipalities, is leading a global project: installing ermine shelters and, in collaboration with “Le Pèlerin”, raptor perches and kestrels, most useful in hangars and barns than in the trees.
Farmer’s ally
The method has proven itself: the kestrel is the ally of farmers. “You only have to see the number of rejection balls at the foot of the stakes to understand that it works,” said ornithologist Charles Francey to “Quotidien Jurassien”.
There is also to see the pictures of the animal photographer Stéphane Theytaz de Montfaucon, who feeds on Facebook the page “Regards nature” and who, for the occasion, fed our photo gallery.
Vincent Donzé
Created: 19.03.2020, 18h51
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