News

Within the framework of the LIFE project “The Return of the Neophron”, a short note on the first reported case of lead poisoning in an Egyptian vulture in the Balkans has been published in the latest issue of the Vulture News Journal. In 2014, an adult Egyptian vulture was found close to Kastoria, Northern Greece, with clear symptoms of lead poisoning. Although the X-rays revealed no shots embedded in its body, blood lead levels were extremely high, measuring 3210 μg/L.
More information can be found here

Supplementary feeding stations, or “vulture restaurants”, are common conservation management tools. While a number of studies have investigated the consequences of surplus food on the population dynamics of scavengers, relatively little is known about the effects of such practices at the individual level. Within the long-term monitored breeding population of Canarian Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus majorensis) this study investigated individual bird’s patterns of use of a supplementary feeding station at Fuerteventura (Canary Islands), over the course of breeding (2001, 2002; 2004-2011) and non-breeding seasons (2000-2010). Garcia-Heras et al. 2013.pdf

A paper about spatial ecology of endangered scavengers. In this case the paper is focused on the Egyptian vulture.

The paper describes the home range and ranging behavior of six adults tracked by satellite telemetry in Spain during the breeding season, from 2007 to 2012. The main goals of this study were to:

1. evaluate and quantify Egyptian vultures’ home range size during the breeding season;

2.  investigate the relationship between space use and external factors (i.e. environmental variables) across years and within the breeding season, with particular emphasis on how food availability, and especially, how anthropogenic predictable sources of food are determinants of space use and shape the home range;

3.  analyse the degree of repeatability (i.e. site fidelity) in the patterns of space use of individuals, both between years and within the breeding season; and finally

 Svetlina is a juvenile tagged Egyptian Vulture from Bulgaria in 2012, that surprised us by reaching Yemen during its first migration. Svetlina does not stop to surprise us by crossing the Red Sea few day ago via Bab el Mandeb, flying over Djibouti and reaching Afar area in Ethiopia. click here.