Environmental news

Make of Barcelona the home that you want!

20/04/2012

The people of Barcelona can, until May 3, their contributions to the WFP, the Municipal Action Plan. So, the people of Barcelona can vote what actions they believe should prioritize the municipal government between 2012 and 2015. To participate, the council offers eight different ways available to the public: by completing the form can be found at OAC, the municipal, tram and bus, filling in the form of web, by calling toll free 900 226 226; internet through facebook.com / Bcn.cat or twitter.com / # Barcelona_cat pambcn, or in person by attending one of over two hundred meetings organized by ten municipal districts.

Barcelona Zoo signs up to the "Composting and Learning" programme

22/03/2011

Barcelona Zoo has enthusiastically signed up to the programme run by the City Council's Environment Department; “Composting and Learning”, to promote the recycling of organic material. The aim of the initiative, which gives composters to schools and offers technical advice and education tools, is to help them with their own composting and use this opportunity to educate their students in good environmental practices. 

The two composters that we will be using at the Zoo, which are also made from recycled plastic from some of the city's old containers, will be filled with garden waste, prunings, animal excrement and different organic material to create high quality fertiliser. Visitors to the zoo can observe this entire process and schools can participate actively through the Education Department.

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The hedgehog colony

24/11/2010

The Barcelona Zoo is researching the origins of a colony of hedgehogs that live in the wild at its facilities. They were spotted running discretely through the park eight years ago and now their origins are being investigated.

The presence of these shy and retiring mammals was noticed during this time by caretakers, gardeners and security guards. And they finally gained credibility and the Zoo’s interest, which wants to know what these hedgehogs are like and where they came from, which have been sighted scurrying through the grounds outside the facilities. They are both visitors and the essence of the Zoo. The Zoo Green Team has studied them and has discovered at least 40 hedgehogs that move around some 15 hectares of land, which also encompasses the Park of La Ciutadella.

The Green Team has installed two shortwave transmitters to oversee the movements of these little mammals. Hedgehogs are more active in the evening, particularly between one and five in the morning. They feed on insects, fruits, seeds and tubers, spending almost 20 hours of each day resting.

The Green Team is currently working on determining the provenance of the colony. The genetic analysis of one of the hedgehog specimens may lead to finding out if they share DNA with specimens from other populations in the wild. Some hypotheses state that it is a 'citadel colony', proceeding from the fields adjoining the Zoo and existing in the area before the construction works started for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

Hedgehogs are not the only autochthonous animals that are being studied at the Zoo. The Green Team has also recorded the sounds of the bats that inhabit the area. In total, more than five bat species have been found, thanks to the unique characteristics of their ultrasounds.

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A ringed seagull from the Zoo spotted in Latvia

15/03/2010

On 21 March 2010, an ornithologist saw a seagull with a blue PVC marking on its left leg on the Daugava River (Latvia). This news was a pleasant surprise, as this is a black-headed gull, Larus ridibundus, which was ringed at the Barcelona Zoo on 16 January. This was part of a joint project carried out between the Barcelona Zoo and the Catalan Ornithological Institute (ICO) to mark different species of seagulls and herons on the Zoo grounds. The most surprising thing of all is that this gull was seen in Barcelona on 13 March, a fact that would confirm that this individual travelled 2350 kilometres in 9 days. A veritable record for a seagull!

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