Mogul helps icon Dominican hawk return from the brink

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.- The Hispaniola Gavilán, an endemic bird of the Dominican Republic has surmounted is critically endangered status and thrives in lands of the Punta Cana Group Foundation and near Los Limones village at Los Haitises National Park (east).

The plight of the Gavilán (Buteo Ridgwayi) drew the interest of tourism mogul Frank Rainieri when invited to a presentation of the striking predatory birds.

He was so impressed that he asked Jake Kheel, environmental deputy director of the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation, to introduce some of the hawks in Punta Cana to protect the species.

Rainieri noted that by introducing the hawks into Punta Cana’s lands would protect them from poachers. “People kill these birds to protect their agricultural crops, their chickens and chicks and here nobody has plots, they all work in their respective jobs.”

Comments are closed.