The Cinereous Vulture, which is worldwide categorized as Near Threatened, has actually seen a considerable drop in its populations in southern Europe because the late 1800s. In Bulgaria, the species has actually been thought about extinct at a local level considering that 1985.
A Cinereous Vulture on a hacking platform. Now that there is currently proof that the imported vultures have been effectively reproducing in Bulgaria, there is one action left before it can be formally verified that the Cinereous Vulture types has actually effectively re-established in the country. In a program that started in 2009, the Griffon Vulture was effectively reintroduced in Bulgaria after about 50 years of “termination”.
Cinereous and Griffon Vultures feeding in the wild. Credit: Hristo Peshev, Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna
The Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus), likewise described as the Black Vulture, Monk Vulture, or Eurasian Black Vulture, is the most significant bird of prey in Europe.
The Cinereous Vulture, which is internationally categorized as Near Threatened, has seen a substantial drop in its populations in southern Europe since the late 1800s. This decline has been so extreme that by the mid-1900s, the bird was currently absent across many of its distribution range in Europe. In Bulgaria, the types has been considered extinct at a regional level given that 1985.
Thanks to the re-introduction effort that was started in 2015 by 3 Bulgarian non-governmental companies: the leading and earliest environmental management NGO in Bulgaria: Green Balkans, the Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna, and the Birds of Prey Protection Society, the species is now back in the country.
The job, aptly named “Vultures Back to LIFE”, where the Vulture Conservation Foundation (Switzerland), EuroNatur (Germany), and Junta de Extremadura (Spain) are also partners, has actually been co-financed by the LIFE+ financial instrument of the European Commission.
By mid-2022, the team imported an overall of 72 people from Spain and European zoos, before launching them in strategically-chosen websites in the Eastern Balkan Mountains and the Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park in Northwestern Bulgaria.
The group brought 63 immatures from Spain, where the birds had actually been found in distress and fixed up in aviaries. The other 9 juveniles were captive-bred in zoos, and then launched by ways of hacking, which involves an artificial nest, from where the recentlies established can slowly” remove” to a life in the wild. A Cinereous Vulture on a hacking platform. Credit: Hristo Peshev, Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna
The re-introduction project to date exists in a research study article, published in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal. There, the researchers led by Ivelin Ivanov (Green Balkans), report on and go over the effectiveness and difficulties of the different release techniques and provide pointers on the preservation and re-introduction.
Hacking showed to be inefficient in developing a completely new core (or nucleus) population of Cinereous Vultures in the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria. It did not work for supplementing a small settled group of individuals either.
Rather, the team advises the aviary technique and postponed release, where captive-bred birds are presented to the brand-new locality after a duration of acclimatization, where the birds can gain life experience to the local environment.
” The Cinereous Vulture re-introduction facility phase in Bulgaria in the two very first release websites is running according to the strategy, and the very first outcomes are satisfying,” the authors of the short article comment. “Two distinct nuclei are now produced, and the types started reproducing, which might be a reason to up-list it in the Red Data Book of Bulgaria from Extinct to Critically Endangered.”.
These two freshly developed breeding nuclei of the Cinereous Vulture in Bulgaria are the second and third of their kind in the Balkan Peninsula.
” Following a dramatic decrease throughout the 20th century for decades, the species had stayed in only one breeding colony in Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park in north-eastern Greece. Now, exchange between the 3 colonies will help with the exchange of people, ensure long-term stability, and trigger the local population,” the authors say.
However, the group mentions that further tracking and modeling and adaptive management are indispensable for the long-lasting perseverance of the new national population. Now that there is currently evidence that the imported vultures have been successfully reproducing in Bulgaria, there is one action left before it can be formally validated that the Cinereous Vulture types has actually effectively re-established in the country. This conclusion can only be made after the core breeding populations start to produce about 10 chicks every year and after the locally fledged individuals begin to replicate by themselves. Such results are anticipated by 2030.
The re-introduction of the Cinereous Vulture is the most current in a series of conservation projects focused on birds of victim in Bulgaria.
First, in a program that began in 2009, the Griffon Vulture was effectively reintroduced in Bulgaria after about 50 years of “extinction”. In fact, the group took a lot of the know-how and methods used because task to use in today job. The success story was published in a term paper in the Biodiversity Data Journal in 2021.
In reality, the really same day in 2021 saw two publications in the Biodiversity Data Journal that reported on re-introduction successes including birds of victim in Bulgaria, which had actually gone missing for decades. The 2nd circumstances was the discovery of the very first nesting Saker Falcons in twenty years.
Both clinical publications become part of a dynamic living collection, entitled “Restoration of species of conservation significance”, whose objective is to collect publicly available research studies reporting on the reintroduction and/or restocking of animal and plant types of preservation value around the globe. The collection was motivated by the “International Scientific Conference on Restoration of Conservation-Reliant Species and Habitats” kept in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2020.
” The remediation of species is among the most crucial conservation tools in the context of constantly heightened human-driven international biodiversity loss. The reintroduction/restocking activities are associated to significant research and information gathering before and throughout the work process, which guarantees their sustainable success,” explain the collection editors.
Recommendation: “First results from the releases of Cinereous Vultures (Aegypius monachus) aiming at reintroducing the types in Bulgaria– the start of the facility phase 2018– 2022 ″ by Ivelin Ivanov, Emilian Stoynov, Georgi Stoyanov, Elena Kmetova– Biro, Jovan Andevski, Hristo Peshev, Simeon Marin, Julien Terraube, Lachezar Bonchev, Iliyan P. Stoev, Jose Tavares, Franziska Loercher, Marleen Huyghe, Zlatka Nikolova, Nadya Vangelova, Stamen Stanchev, Emanuil Mitrevichin, Elena Tilova and Atanas Grozdanov, 9 March 2023, Biodiversity Data Journal.DOI: 10.3897/ BDJ.11. e100521.