Abstract

The Mediterranean ecosystem in the Metropolitan Region of Chile is among the most threatened in the country because of human impacts caused by the concentration of 5.5 million people in an area of only 15 800 km2. We analyze species presence at three spatial scales: the entire region, Santiago city and its surroundings, and two suburban localities where there has been intensive monitoring of raptors in the recent past. Twenty-four raptor species (18 Falconiformes and 6 Strigiformes) were found in the Metropolitan Region (83% of Chile's total). Twenty-one of them are resident species that breed and winter in the area. Overall, four species have increased over the last 30 years, seven have decreased, and 11 remained at the same levels. There is insufficient information available to determine the status of two species. Of the 24 species in the region, 18 occur in the vicinity of Santiago, the largest city in the country. We classified seven species (29% of the regional total) as either urban (four species) or suburban raptors (three species), and we discuss how they apparently cope and even thrive in such a large urban area. © 2001 The Raptor Research Foundation, Inc.