The first birds from the 2026 class of the BSPB Vulture School have already been housed in the special aviary in the Eastern Rhodopes

The two Egyptian vultures, which were donated to the Bulgarian nature by the British organization Hortsmann Trust, arrived in our country on February 18. For a month, they were under quarantine at Sofia Zoo, where they were cared for by specialists from the zoo’s team. The birds, which were hatched last year at the specialized vulture center in the UK, have already been housed at the “Vulture School” and are doing well. They are under constant video surveillance and in the next two months will be prepared for life in the wild.
The arrival of the birds is the result of the cooperation between the Sofia Zoo, the Hortsmann Trust and the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB). This is the first such donation of its kind from the UK to Bulgaria of Egyptian vultures, which will be released into the wild – another important step in the international partnership for the protection of this globally endangered species.
The program for strengthening the population of the Egyptian vulture in Bulgaria is implemented by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds in cooperation with Green Balkans and the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) of the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA), which is coordinated by Antonin Weidl from Prague Zoo. Sofia Zoo, which is a member of EAZA and the EEP for Egyptian vultures, breeds 2 pairs and has so far provided 5 of the hatched young at the zoo for the species conservation program.
The activities for the conservation of the Egyptian vulture are carried out within the framework of the project “Green Belt of Southeast Bulgaria” funded by the Endangered Landscapes Programme (ELSP), which is managed by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative – a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and leading international organizations focused on biodiversity conservation.