Several weeks ago we introduced you to our dear Ferreret right here on our blog, the official mascot of Ferrer Hotels and one of the endemic, but also endangered species of Majorca. Probably now is the right moment to catch you up on how our researches to help this species are progressing.
As you know the Ferreret is a small Majorcan toad, and from Ferrer Hotels we are trying to save the species from going extinct. Throughout the history, as Majorca was conquered by various cultures, this brought on a lot of species from outside the island, which reached the territory of the small toad and were the major cause of its extinction.
Today we talk with Samuel Piña, doctor of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) and the biggest expert worldwide in the Ferreret. Samuel tells us that due to the great threat facing the Ferreret, now our little friend is forced to survive in the hidden karst ravines of the Serra de Tramuntana because its main predator, the viperine snake, can barely reach in there.
Samuel and his team recently explored the depths of the Serra de Tramuntana to carry out preliminary investigations around the Ferreret. The main objective of this first phase was to make a rough estimate of the volume of Ferrerets that are on the island. To do so, they moved to a stream located in the town of Escorca, in the course of which they spent the entire night capturing specimens of adult Ferrerets in order to study them. Once located, all the specimens were measured, weighed and photographed in order to be able to identify them. Also, more than 13 morphological variables were taken to be able to identify the gender of each specimen.
Doctor Piña tells us that the digital photographs taken of each specimen would allow them to recognise each Ferreret individually, thanks to a recognition software called Aphis, which was designed a few years ago by the Bit Foundation and the IMEDEA, and is currently of great use to them.
As you can see our efforts to help the conservation of the Ferreret are already underway and we from Ferrer Hotels cannot be more excited about beginning to help the Ferreret.
