SmartBirds
Photo: © Dimitris Vasilakis
On the eve of the Christmas holidays, one of the Cinereous vultures released just a month earlier near Madzharovo found itself in a dangerous situation in neighboring Greece.
After leaving the Madzharovo area, the bird-headed to the southern part of Sakar Mountain. Unfortunately, the efforts of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) to keep the vulture on Bulgarian territory did not yield results, and it moved along the Maritsa River, crossing the border between Bulgaria and Greece south of Svilengrad.
On Greek territory, the bird found an unusual resting place—the outskirts and agricultural buildings of a Greek village. A team from BSPB alerted the management of the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park and the Forestry service in Dimotika. After 24 hours and two unsuccessful attempts to capture it, the bird was captured early in the morning on December 22 by our colleague Dimitris Vasilakis from the Forestry Service in Dimotika. Thanks to his many years of experience and work with vulture species, Dimitris managed to find the most suitable approach to capture the bird, and his efforts proved successful. The bird was examined, and after no injuries were found, it was placed for care in the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park.
During the reintroduction of vulture species, some individuals, despite the identical conditions under which they are raised and adapted, find it more challenging to cope with life in the wild in the first weeks after release. They may exhibit atypical behavior for birds and be observed in places unfamiliar to them. This is the case with the female bird that Dimitris managed to save.
© Dimitris Vasilakis
The bird will stay in Greece for some time and then plans are to return it to the reintroduction site near the town of Madzharovo, where it will be released again to join the other Cinereous vultures in the area.
BSPB expresses its gratitude to the employees of the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park and the Forestry Service in Dimotika, and especially to Dimitris Vasilakis for their cooperation and professional approach in saving and caring for the Cinereous vulture.
The birds are provided by the Spanish non-governmental organization GREFA (Grupo de Rehabilitación de la Fauna Autóctona), which has been working for years to save and rehabilitate injured wild birds. The activities for the return of Cinereous vultures to the Eastern Rhodopes are carried out by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds in collaboration with the “Rewilding Rhodopes” Foundation and are funded by Rewilding Europe.
