Basoilarra kantü / Irati soruan... This is what the well-known Bertso of the Popular Songwriter says. Ihurk elezcan tell me what I think... The Basque ethnographers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries received the song in Atharratze and eleven other places of the Basaburua de Zuberoa. We do not know exactly whether it refers to the rooster (Tetrao urogallus) or the rooster of light (Upupa epops), which in some places is called the same bird with migratory crests, but it is to be assumed that then the song of those birds would be better known, perhaps as we do today the melody of Benito.

But we will no longer hear the cock sing, neither in Irati, nor in the rest of the forests of Auñamendi, where there were still some specimens left. According to a recent study by the Institute of Ecology of the Pyrenees, in Aragon about 40% of the areas that have already existed in recent years have been lost, without any trace of the largest chicken mill being detected. Currently, only 400 specimens of the sub-variety of the Pyrenean forest remain alive, most of them in Catalonia. In the Basque Country, in Navarre, 15 specimens were counted until 1991, but in 2005 only two, in the surroundings of Larra and Belagua.

The courts are empty

It is the largest bird in the European forest: the male can reach a weight of 4.5 kilograms and measure 85 centimeters, while the female reaches 2 kilograms and 68 centimeters. They're famous for their songs and their dances in times of zeal, and that's when they proudly showcase their feathers. In the documentary Natura Bizia we had the opportunity to enjoy this unique show, in images captured by the cameras:

Basgallos usually have cancioneros in the clear-cut – or in the fields, as the song says – which are usually only found in mature and healthy forests where beech, bee, or black pines grow. According to the last count made by the Institute of Ecology of the Pyrenees, in the observations made in 47 Aragonese localities, in 18 of them no pheasants were found.

It is not the only recent investigation to call the alarm about the ecstasy of the bird. Another study conducted a year ago by the Protective Foundation of the Quebrantabones and the University of Valencia also yielded similar results: The population of the Cantabrian and Pyrenees has been reduced by 58 per cent in recent years, apparently due to poor proliferation. Of the eggs that a female forest incubates per year, only 0.68 chicks survive.

In this sense, many ask to stop being a “vulnerable” species and declare a “endangered” species. But what is the real cause of that decline? Do not hesitate: the human being.

The hand of the man behind the disappearance

The temperature changes caused by the climate emergency, which in recent years has increased by 1.2 degrees in the Pyrenees, 30% more than the global average rise, have significantly influenced the descent of the rooster. Among the singing sites observed in Aragon, for example, those that have disappeared the most are those that look south and those that are in the lowest areas, between 1,400 and 2,200 meters of altitude. In addition, the proliferation of mountain roads, the loss of habitat, tourist attraction, hunting, the proliferation of other predators, etc. They have also endangered extinction.

Experts say that the rooster is an excellent bioindicator, a guess of biodiversity loss and climate change. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature updates every year the red list of endangered species and has for the first time catalogued 40,000 species in this situation. We also have the forest, declining from Asia to the Cantabrian. This news should prompt us to reflect: We will see the king of the wild birds of Europe die among us, but we will always have a song to comfort us…