SmartBirds
Photo: © Enrique Martínez
Another seven Cinereous Vultures have completed an impressive 3,300-kilometre journey from Spain to the Eastern Rhodopes to become part of the ambitious LIFE Rhodope Vulture project, aimed at restoring this majestic species in Bulgaria. Their arrival marks another significant step in the efforts of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) and the Rewilding Rhodopes Foundation, who have been working since 2022 to reintroduce the species in the region.
With these arrivals, the total number of Cinereous Vultures released in the area has now reached 33 birds, bringing us closer to the project’s goal of establishing a breeding colony in Bulgaria.
The long journey across almost all of Europe took several days and presented many challenges. After a three-day trip organized by the Spanish organization GREFA and its Bulgarian partners, the birds have now been settled into a special acclimatization aviary, where they will spend several months adapting to the local environment. The vultures are expected to be released into the wild in October.
Photo: © Dobromir Dobrev/BSPB
A team of experts from BSPB will closely monitor the birds over the coming days to ensure a smooth adaptation process and check on their overall health and well-being.
“Just three years after beginning the reintroduction of the Cinereous Vulture to the Bulgarian part of the Eastern Rhodopes, we’ve already observed four pairs this year, including one that has started incubating. This shows we’re on the right path, and with the support of the local community, we hope for even better results in the next breeding season,” shared Dr. Dobromir Dobrev of BSPB.
The Cinereous Vulture is one of the rarest birds on the Balkans. Once widespread in Bulgaria, the species disappeared as a nesting bird about 25 years ago. In the 1980s, several pairs were recorded in the Eastern Rhodopes, with the last confirmed nesting pair near Studen Kladenets Reservoir in 1993.
Photo: © Dobromir Dobrev/BSPB
Today, the last natural breeding colony of Cinereous Vultures on the Balkans is found in Dadía National Park in Greece. Although the colony now holds 44 breeding pairs, its limited size and slow population growth make natural recolonization unlikely.
For this reason, in recent years, BSPB and the Rewilding Rhodopes Foundation launched a reintroduction initiative. Thanks to this international cooperation, Cinereous Vultures are once again soaring freely in the Rhodope Mountains.
The reintroduction activities are part of the LIFE project, ” Restoration of the Cinereous vulture population and trophic chain in the Bulgarian-Greek cross-border region“,implemented on the Bulgarian side by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds in collaboration with Rewilding Rhodopes Foundation. The project (No. 101148254 — LIFE23-NAT-BG-LIFE Rhodope Vulture) is co-financed by the European Union’s LIFE program and Rewilding Europe.
