Good griffon vulture news from Bulgaria

This video from Bulgaria is called The vultures in Eastern Rhodopes.

From Wildlife Extra:

Record numbers of Griffon Vultures reported in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains

Vultures of many kinds are on the rise in Bulgaria’s remote mountains

The numbers of Griffon Vultures found to be nesting in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria has risen considerably, reports Rewilding Europe.

In February 2015, experts from Rewilding Rhodopes and its partner the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds/ BirdLife Bulgaria visited all the known nesting locations of Griffon Vultures in the Eastern Rhodopes.

Of the 75 registered Griffon Vulture pairs in the area they found that 55 were at an incubation stage and the rest were in the process of building their nests.

Most of the identified pairs consist of adult birds.

“The positive trend of increase of the population of the Griffon Vulture in the Eastern Rhodopes continues this year as well: five more pairs compared to 2014,” says Dobromir Dobrev from the Rewilding Rhodopes team.

“An interesting result of the monitoring is the large number of single, non-breeding birds along the Arda river valley.”

Griffon vulture was widespread in Bulgaria in the past but in the mid 20th century numbers decreased dramatically and by the beginning of 70s the species was considered extinct.

In 1978, a small colony with one breeding pair was found in the area of Studen Kladenets, Eastern Rhodopes.

Eight years later a Griffon Vulture colony of nearly 20 birds and three nesting pairs was discovered near the town of Madzharovo.

Shortly after, the first direct conservation efforts in Bulgaria started: monitoring, artificial feeding and work with local communities.

Gradually, the species recovered and its breeding population increased from about 10 pairs in 1990s to 70 in 2014.

Today, the Arda valley is the breeding area of one of the largest natural colonies of Griffon Vultures in the Balkans.

Maintaining and supporting the comeback of the vultures in the Eastern Rhodopes is one of the highlights of the recently started five-year rewilding activities financed by the Swiss-based Fondation Segré.

The Eastern Rhodopes is also the most important breeding site for the globally threatened Egyptian Vulture on the Balkan peninsula.

The last remaining breeding colony of Black Vultures in South-eastern Europe is situated nearby, in the Dadia forest on the Greek side of the border, and the birds regularly come over to the Bulgarian side of the mountains in search for food.

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