SmartBirds
© Stella Trendafilova
In August the team of BSPB tagged with GPS transmitters two siblings in an Egyptian Vulture nest in the Eastern Rhodopes, Bulgaria. This event marked the beginning of the first tracking of entire family of this endangered species in the world. The two siblings were named Lizi and Isabela. Their parents are the famous Izi and Lucky which we have been tracking for years. The GPS devices allowed us to study the interactions between the young vultures and their parents, to seek the answers of some scientific questions which might help for the conservation of the species for example “Do the young vultures learn from their parents where to find food?”, “Do the parents teach the youngsters how to fly?”, “Does the family migrate together to Africa?”.
With growing impatience our team was awaiting the fledging of the young vultures from the nest. And yet it happened in the second half of July. During the first few days the siblings were sitting near the nest and making only short flights around. However, after a week they started exploring further from the nest following their parents. They showed them the main feeding area which is located over 10 km from the nest. The chicks were following one parent each during their daily travels and were exploring the entire breeding territory.
In mid-September the migration instinct forced the younger sibling to start its autumn journey. Lizi started its migration on 08th September. Four days later she was followed by the elder sibling Isabela and their mother Izi. However, Izi and Izabela did not fly together and used different migration route. Released from its duty as a parent Lucky left the breeding territory last on the 14th September and now the entire family was on the move but none of them flew together.
The experienced parents used the traditional migratory route for the species flying over the Bosphorus, then towards Central Turkey, the Middle East until they reach Egypt and cross the Sahara to their wintering grounds in Sudan. The unexperienced Lizi decided to cross the Marmara sea through the Dardanelles. Later, she flew straight towards the island of Lesbos instead of flying eastwards towards Central Turkey as most young vultures do. Lizi followed the coastline hopping from island to island until reaching Rhodos. With no signs of hesitation she left the island towards the sea and undertook a risky flight over the Mediterranean Sea which unfortunately was unsuccessful and she perished in the sea. Only one out of ten young Egyptian Vultures manage to successfully cross the vast sea between Europe and Africa.
Unlike its sister Isabela decided to follow the usual migratory route through Turkey. She reached the coast at the Adrasan peninsula in Southern Turkey but instead of flying over the sea Isabela decided to follow the coast. Unfortunately, she was shot by poachers while flying over the mountain to the east. When we received the worrying signal from its GPS transmitter immediately contacted the ornithologist Lale Aktay and with the support of the local authority the body of Isabela was found. The x-ray confirmed that she was shot by poachers.
These cases confirm the need to continue the flyway initiatives to conserved the migratory birds and the Egyptian Vulture in particular along the entire flyway between Europe and Africa.
Egyptian vulture conservation activities are carried out within the “From the Iron Curtain to the Green Belt” project. The project is funded by the Endangered Landscapes Programme (ELP) that is managed by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative – a collaboration between the Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge of The Old Schools and leading internationally-focused biodiversity conservation organizations. The University and the ELP are supported by Arcadia – a charitable fund of Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing.
