SmartBirds
The Egyptian Vulture is Europe’s smallest yet most threatened vulture species. A dramatic decline over the past 40 years in the Balkans seriously depleted its population from 600 pairs in the 80-s to less than 60 pairs in 2019. The core of this fragile population is in the Eastern Rhodopes, Bulgaria, where roughly 50% of the Balkan population resides.
This year, the BSPB/BirdLife Bulgaria team recorded 35 occupied Egyptian Vulture territories in Bulgaria, an increase of almost 20% compared to last year. It is the first time in 40 years that numbers have increased, which gives hope for the future of this endangered species in the Balkans. The recorded population increase is due to the formation of new pairs, primarily in the core population of the Eastern Rhodopes but also in northeastern Bulgaria. New pairs were found in territories that were abandoned by the species for decades. The last time the Egyptian vulture in Bulgaria occupied 35 breeding territories was back in 2008 but in the context of sharp declines at that time. Good news is also coming from Central Greece, where a former breeding territory in the former stronghold of Meteora was restored after six long years, and the new pair successfully bred.
These results are a historic success and give hope that the population in the rest of the Balkan countries might show similar recovery. This increase is not by chance with the first efforts to save the Egyptian Vulture from extinction starting more than two decades ago. However, since 2012, an alliance of nature conservation NGOs led by BSPB joined forces to apply large-scale conservation measures at a regional level in the frame of the LIFE project “The Return of the Neophron” (LIFE10 NAT/BG/000152). In 2017, the ambitious LIFE project “Egyptian Vulture New LIFE” (LIFE16 NAT/BG/000874) expanded the work along the entire Eastern Mediterranean flyway, involving 22 partners from 14 countries across three continents. Targeted research and conservation measures were applied across the entire Flyway from the Balkans, through the Middle East to Africa.
The dedicated team applied large-scale conservation actions to combat poisoning, illegal killing, electrocution and collision with energy infrastructure, and illegal trade by carefully developing nest guarding, provisioning of safe food, GPS tracking individuals, involvement of local communities and many other conservation tools. The second pillar in our conservation strategy is the implementation of a reinforcement program through the release of captive-bred individuals provided by the Egyptian Vulture ex-situ breeding program within EAZA. These efforts aimed to safeguard the species from local extinction and recover the former distribution and numbers across the peninsula.
Halting the decline of a threatened migratory bird species is a major success, but the population is still small and vulnerable. Continued efforts to reduce the key threats are necessary along the entire flyway to enable the full recovery of the population, and funding is sorely needed to sustain these efforts long-term. However, for once, there is a glimmer of hope that with a large team of dedicated people working at truly intercontinental scales, even species that migrate thousands of kilometres can potentially be rescued – a feat that seemed impossible only a few years ago.
