Bucharest/ – The military restrictions imposed in the Danube Delta amid the war started by Russia in Ukraine have affected the monitoring of Dalmatian pelican populations in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, an activity carried out in recent years within the “Pelican Way of Life” project, funded by the European Union.

The project coordinator from the Romanian Ornithological Society (SOR), Sebastian Bugariu, told AGERPRES that the Dalmatian pelican population was “severely” influenced by the avian flu that broke out in the same year the war in Ukraine was triggered, 2022, the bird protection organization wanting to evaluate at the same time the impact of the viral disease on the globally protected species.

The “Pelican Way of Life” project aims to improve the habitats used by Dalmatian pelicans in 27 sites in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Ukraine, and to this end, 24 specimens are equipped with satellite transmitters through which real-time data is collected, which are subsequently used to conserve the areas preferred by the aquatic species.

“Some of these birds in the Danube Delta, equipped by us in the lagoon area, but also by our colleagues in Bulgaria, have moved north, beyond Odessa, even close to Crimea. At present, two of these birds have stopped transmitting data somewhere, in the northern part of the delta, on Ukrainian territory and, unfortunately, we cannot know what happened there. They are in restricted areas,” mentioned Sebastian Bugariu.

The “Pelican Way of Life” project began on September 1, 2019, has a total budget of over 1.7 million euros, will end at the end of the first quarter of next year and aims to reduce the causes of mortality recorded among Dalmatian pelican populations, one of these causes being power lines in aquatic areas.

The Danube Delta is one of the few areas in Europe where both species of pelicans, the common pelican and the Dalmatian pelican, are found, the latter being a globally endangered species and included in the “Vulnerable” category on the IUCN Red List.