EOC 149: Plight of the Puerto Rican Sharp-shinned Hawk
Hurricane Maria was the worst storm to hit Puerto Rico in over 80 years, arriving only two weeks after Hurricane Irma passed just north of the island. The effects of these storms on Puerto Rican families — and the island’s infrastructure — will take many years to heal. The effect on the wildlife inhabiting this island was also, not surprisingly, equally devastated. When the Peregrine Fund’s team of biologists surveyed the population of Puerto Rican Sharp-shinned Hawks in 2017, they found 75 birds comprising 16 breeding pairs in four locations on the island. Following hurricanes Irma and Maria, the population was down to just 19 individual birds. Nearly 75 percent of the subspecies was lost. Matt Podolsky sat down with Russel Thurstrom at the Peregrine Fund to learn more about this discovery and the actions being taken to prevent this species from blinking out.