The forest wildfires during the past weeks endangered people and settlements, but also valuable natural habitats which are home to an enormous variety of species, some of them globally endangered, the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) has warned.

“The fire has had apocalyptic results for the mountains Sakar and Western Strandzha, where villages and domestic animals were burnt and biodiversity gravely damaged,” the BSPB says.

In some territories new eagle nests have been destroyed by the flames, as well as three artificial nests placed there to attract Eastern imperial eagle couples. The territories of other endangered species have also been destroyed – the lesser spotted eagle, the short-toed snake eagle, the booted eagle, the northern goshawk and the common buzzard.

“We are yet to find out the dimensions of the consequences and the effects of the wildfires on nature and biodiversity in this country,” the BSPB says.