PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The most serious problem for vultures in Bulgaria today is the critically low number of populations and their isolation. In spite of two decades of conservation efforts, the WWF Greece Dadia project showed that the number of breeding pairs is not increasing and remains around 20 pairs. Another threat is unsuitable livestock breeding practices resulting in inaccessible food sources for vultures. Although the viability studies for reintroduction of griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) prepared for the target SPAs indicated that livestock numbers are sufficient, it was found out that they are not available for food.
Availability of nesting sites is another factor: European black vultures (Aegypius monachus) prefer to nest on top of trees and to a lesser extent cliffs and strong tree branches. In Dadia, Greece, the species nests in an old coniferous forest consisting mostly of Turkish pine and European black pine. The species is very sensitive to habitat quality and disturbance. Planned felling schemes, construction of roads, wind parks, and electricity power lines can significantly damage the nesting habitat and force birds to abandon affected areas. In fact, released captive griffon vultures have recently been found to be at great risk of electrocution as a result of power lines, while poisoning remains a serious threat. Direct persecution is considered to be responsible for the disappearance of large vultures from the country in the middle of the past century.
OBJECTIVES
The Vultures back to LIFE project aimed to facilitate the return of the Eurasian black vulture to Bulgaria through enhancing EU expertise, improving the conditions, limiting threats, and increasing national capacity. The goal was to establish a nesting population of the Eurasian black vulture in Bulgaria, in order to restore the connections among the sub-populations of this species on the Balkans (Greece), Crimea, the Alps and the Iberian Peninsula, aiding the recreation of a much more sustainable pan-European population. Тhe project was expected to reach a new milestone in the implementation of the Balkan Vulture Action Plan, while also strengthening the core expertise on vultures in the country and the collaboration of Spanish and Austrian vulture experts with Bulgarian NGOs and academic and research communities.
RESULTS
The Vultures back to LIFE project helped the Eurasian black vulture (Aegypius monachus) return to Bulgaria, by improving habitat conditions, limiting threats, and increasing national conservation capacity.
Specifically, the project team:
• Purchased over 92 ha of land plots to establish agro-silvo-pastoral complexes and accommodate fallow deer.
• Expanded 4 existing aviaries and reconstructed another aviary with modernised facilities, and established external washing premises and a refrigeration unit at the Wildlife Rescue Centre of Green Balkans.
• Successfully translocated a total of 76 black vultures and released them in three key areas in Bulgaria.
• Recorded two black vulture breeding attempts in the wild in the Balkan Mountains, the first to be recorded for more than 60 years, in 2021. In 2022, three pairs bred with one chick produced.
• Released a total of 111 griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) to supplement and support the adaptation and survival of the black vultures.
• Established 3 new supplementary feeding sites along the expected flyways of the released black vultures.
• Improved nesting conditions for black vulture by planting 8 500 saplings, and installed 80 artificial nests.
• Established a nucleus of 200 free-ranging fallow deer in one of the agro-silvo-pastoral complexes created during the project.
• Established a farmers’ union, which helped clear 600 ha of neglected pastures, resulting in a direct increase of farmers’ profit and livestock numbers.
• Established one flock of 453 sheep and a flock of 154 cows, and promoted extensive animal husbandry practices.
• Created two new colonies of the important prey species suslik or European ground squirrel (Spermophilus citellus), with a minimum of 300 individuals each.
• Collected a total of 150 vulture samples for the analysis of lead, pesticides and antibiotics.
• Insulated around 140 of the most dangerous electricity pylons for black vultures.
