- The station's annual report highlights recording the presence of martens and badgers
- Madrevieja, a natural enclave owned by Fundación Cepsa, is also a reserve for more than 240 species of moths
Ornitour, the company that manages this natural reserve owned by Fundación Cepsa, has confirmed that 21 species were inventoried in 2020, most notably, the stone marten; with this addition, all the species of carnivore in the province of Cadiz can be found in Madrevieja. There’s also been some new additions to the mammal group: the ichneumon (Herpestes ichneumon) has once again reproduced, with a litter of three pups, and sightings of two badgers (Meles meles) have been confirmed.
As for birds, a new species was sighted this year, the Crested Tit (Parus cristatus) raising the number of species sighted last year to 139. On the subject of bird banding, despite limitations caused by Covid-19 , a total of 291 bands were attached to 14 different species throughout 2020. Ornitour has noted that the efforts of bird banding programs have begun to bear fruit with specimens recovered outside the Madrevieja Environmental Station: of the 25 recoveries carried out in the Iberian Peninsula, 14 were in nearby areas within the region, mostly in the Guadiaro River Estuary Natural Park, which demonstrates the important interrelationship between this environmental enclave with other wetlands.
In addition, 16 other recovery operations abroad have confirmed the presence of birds from Madrevieja in the United Kingdom, in the lead with 11 sightings,France (2), Belgium (2), and finally, the furthest away, in Finland, where a common reed warbler was sighted. Two Eurasian spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia) have also been recovered, one in France and one in Germany. This species is catalogued as vulnerable (VU); in recent years it has become increasingly common for it to stop over at the Madrevieja Environmental Station and stay for longer periods of time.
Lastly, Madrevieja is a reserve and home to Lepidoptera (group of moths/butterflies), which are of great ecological interest for their role in pollinating a large number of plants and for being part of the food chain for countless species. They are also ecological indicators of the diversity and healthiness of the ecosystems they inhabit. There are two large groups: diurnal, which are popularly known as butterflies, and nocturnal, known as moths. Currently, there are 482 species of butterflies in Europe, while the latter group is much larger with around 10,000 species. The same is true for the Madrevieja Environmental Station where a total of 243 species of moths have been inventoried to date.
The Madrevieja Environmental Station is a research center and nature reserve owned by Fundación Cepsa, which has worked to restore the wetland since 2009. Since its inauguration in 2014, Ornitour has been working not only to conserve the area, but also to recover species and the passage of birds in this corner of Campo de Gibraltar, which is open to the public to enjoy and learn from.