{"id":388778,"date":"2026-08-21T11:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/388778\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T11:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:49:15","slug":"a-million-falcons-went-missing-from-eastern-europe-heres-how-they-were-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/388778\/","title":{"rendered":"A Million Falcons Went Missing From Eastern Europe. Here\u2019s How They Were Found"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Man's hand holding a bird with small device on its back and wide open tail.\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR zFTjo hakZw HlUVI UbGlr \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/EC-96381S-22_230323_sta_4346.jpg\" id=\"Finding Falcopolis_MF4209-GPS\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Palatitz hopes to use GPS data from tagged falcons to study their hunting behavior and migration patterns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Conversely, Falcopolis\u2019s small size also means that a small number of communities will determine the birds\u2019 fate, and that Palatitz\u2019s team knows where to concentrate its efforts. Agostinho, who coordinates with national authorities and now leads a conservation nonprofit called Orbis Angola, has been raising awareness about the falcons at surrounding schools and churches, and with the local\u00a0soba\u2014influential traditional leaders. The teams have set up a research camp to document the locals\u2019 knowledge about the birds and enlist their help with banding and conservation measures. They\u2019re also talking with donors about supplying people with gas stoves or solar cookers to reduce their need for firewood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Meanwhile, news of Falcopolis is spreading quickly. At a recent conference, Angola\u2019s president described it as a national treasure. The Ministry of the Environment went to the site, marking the first high-level governmental visit to the area in decades. A six-foot-tall falcon statue now stands in the main square of the nearest municipality, Mungo. And Palatitz\u2019s team has started bringing international volunteers to Falcopolis, where Agostinho is training locals to guide future tourists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">These efforts are already paying off. When Agostinho first visited Mungo, he found falcons on sale in the market. \u201cThat\u2019s gone completely,\u201d he says. Perhaps more important, locals are increasingly venturing out of their homes at night to see the birds for themselves. And as they become invested, they\u2019re coming up with their own ways of protecting the birds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Earlier this year, five 12-year-old boys told Agostinho that they had formed a soccer team, the Mungo Falcons. They would use their matches as opportunities to educate similarly aged kids\u2014the demographic most likely to hunt the birds\u2014about protecting the raptors. They\u2019d play for the falcons; they just needed a ball. So Agostinho bought this new generation of ambassadors their first one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Red-footed falcons, like other spectacular migrants, show how connected our planet is\u2014and needs to be. Their success depends on wild resources as disparate as rook nests in Europe and termite swarms in Africa. And their future will hinge upon equally far-flung feats of human grace, from nest boxes in Hungary to soccer balls in Angola.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Palatitz hopes to use GPS data from tagged falcons to study their hunting behavior and migration patterns. Conversely,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[1151],"class_list":["post-388778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-angola","tag-angola"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117133349394224899","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}