In March 2024, the Madrid City Council presented the results of its campaign to reduce the population of Argentine and Kramer’s parrots in the capital. The data announced then by the delegate of Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante, estimated the reduction of these invasive species from 13,000 to 10,000 specimens between May 2021 and April 2023. Two years later, and after a request for access to public information made by this means, the City Council has raised the figures to 17,143 captures, although without specifying how many specimens there were at the beginning of the campaign and how many at the end of it. The City Council has also acknowledged having shot dead 1,191. The data has surprised both the Spanish Society of Ornithology (SEO Birdlife) – in charge of carrying out the censuses – and Ecologistas en Acción, who have questioned its veracity and some elimination practices.
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