Cofib helps rescue wildlife and restore balance to Mallorca’s ecosystem
Miquel Puig the guardian of wildlife at COFIB (Wildlife Recovery Centre of Mallorca). Presented by TUI. Video by Nova Producciones (Video lasts 7 minutes 57 seconds) | Youtube: Majorca Daily Bulletin TV
The hedgehog babies nibble contentedly on the cockroaches in their little bowl. These cute little creatures don’t look like they’d require much care. Far from it! Raising a young animal without its mother is a real challenge. Miquel Puig and his colleagues work seven days a week at the wildlife care centre Cofib in Santa Eugènia. And he knows what he’s talking about. “Even round-the-clock care can’t replace what a mother provides,” says Puig, who was captivated by wildlife as a child and never let go of that fascination.
Raising young animals is the most difficult task. Even the hardest work can never fully replace a mother’s care.
His path was clear. He became a biologist and, after finishing his studies, took the opportunity to work with Cofib (Consortium for the Recovery of the Fauna of the Balearic Islands) shortly after its founding in 2004. To this day he’s remained loyal to the organisation. “Back then, there were just three of us. Today, we’re more than 50,” Puig says, clearly proud of the progress.
But what exactly does the centre do, aside from rearing helpless young animals?
“We try to keep the ecosystem of Mallorca and the entire archipelago in balance,” Puig explains, before diving into the details. Nature has been thrown off balance by the effects of globalisation and socio-economic development. That’s why it’s necessary to step in at various points and use human intervention to help restore environmental equilibrium.
Biologist Miquel Puig works to heal sick and injured wild animals, giving them the chance to return to the wild.
That includes the care and rewilding of sick animals. At the same time, this work creates a great deal of research demand.
“One day, we noticed worrying behavioural issues in hedgehogs and began working with the University of the Balearic Islands to get to the bottom of it.” And successfully so! The hedgehogs had been spinning around in circles for no apparent reason. “Eventually we discovered that the animals were infected by a new parasite from Southeast Asia, which attacked their brains and caused neurological damage.”
Just like this unknown parasite, other foreign organisms and animals have also found their way to the island - mostly brought in unnoticed by humans.
“In the past 20 years, four new snake species have been accidentally introduced to the island. The horseshoe whip snake is one of them and has no natural predators here.” This, in turn, allows them to spread rapidly. The result: local species extinction. “Cofib is now working to eradicate the snake from the Balearic Islands,” says Puig. “It’s almost impossible, but we still have to try. We’re setting up special traps and trying to push the species back.”
The horseshoe whip snake was brought to Mallorca as a result of human activity. It isn’t naturally aggressive - it's simply following its instinct to survive.
What upsets him is the image of the snake as an evil, aggressive creature, so deeply rooted in people’s minds. “We’re the predators, not them. These animals only attack if they feel threatened,” he clarifies. And their behaviour in a new environment is not their fault either. “They’re simply following their natural instinct to survive - it has nothing to do with aggression.”
While some species exist in abundance, others are under threat. “Take sea turtles, for example. In recent years, they’ve been laying eggs more frequently on local beaches, but their reproductive success is still low,” he explains. Sexually mature turtles only return to lay their eggs on the beach where they were born. “Out of 1,000 hatchlings, at most 20 survive. So of course, we try to help ensure the species survival,” he says, smiling.
Releasing an animal back into the wild after successful treatment is a truly special moment for Puig.
With that in mind, the team at Cofib brought the eggs and the newly hatched turtles into the institute, where they protected and cared for them for a year to improve their chances of survival.
Puig finds the moments when he and his colleagues release animals back into the wild especially moving.
“We can’t save them all. But it’s an incredibly rewarding feeling to give a living being back the life it deserves after so much time and care.”
Support from the tourism industry: the video-project is sponsored by Europe's leading tourism group Tui and its Tui Care Foundation. The initiative was founded in 2016 with the aim of supporting sustainable projects in the destinations. The foundation focuses on the potential of the tourism sector as a driver of social development, education and prosperity. The Group promotes sustainable tourism in cooperation with local people.
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