SmartBirds
This year, three captive-bred Egyptian Vultures were released in the wild and occupied breeding territories in the Eastern Rhodopes. Two of these vultures – Izi and Zara formed pairs with wild individuals and occupied breeding territories. Panteley occupied a breeding territory but remained single this year. Since the start of the Reinforcement program in 2018, a total of four different captive-bred Egyptian Vultures have occupied breeding territories in the release area, which is a tremendous success for the programme.
Two more Egyptian vultures were released through delayed release in Bulgaria – Luis and Paulina. Paulina was born in captivity in Schönbrunn Zoo, and Luis was extracted from the wild nest in 2022 due to very late hatching.
They both adapted well to the local conditions and were observed feeding on carcasses also outside the feeding station. Luis spent the summer near the release site. Its transmitter dropped off in June but was deployed again in late August. He started migration on time and followed the traditional migratory route of the species reaching the wintering grounds in Yemen. Paulina was roosting on trees and on cliffs from the first night after the release and started feeding at the supplementary feeding site regularly. However, just 9 days after the release, she was attacked at night by a predator, most probably a fox, and killed.
In 2023, five individuals released in previous years returned to the release area – Izi, Zara, Panteley, Ferdinand and Deni.
Read the Annual report on the reinforcement of the Egyptian Vulture population HERE.
The Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds/BirdLife Bulgaria implements the Reinforcement Program for the Egyptian Vultures in Bulgaria in close collaboration with Green Balkans and the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) for the Egyptian Vulture coordinated by Antonin Vaidl from the Prague Zoo. We are grateful to Jerez Zoo, Prague Zoo, Zoo Zlin, Schönbrunn Zoo, Sofia Zoo, Ostrava Zoo, WRBC of Green Balkans and their staff for the continued support of this project.
Since 2023 it is funded by the Endangered Landscapes and Seascapes Programme in the frame of the “From Iron Curtain to Green Belt: restoring ecological networks in Southeast Bulgaria” funded by the Endangered Landscapes Programme (ELP) that is managed by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative – a collaboration between Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge of The Old Schools and leading internationally-focused biodiversity conservation organisations. The University and the ELP are supported by Arcadia – a charitable fund of Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing.
