Cinereous vulture in Macedonia, after ten years

This video, from Azerbaijan, Turianchai reserve, June 24, 2013 is called Cinereous Vulture. Battle.

From the Vulture Conservation Foundation:

Black (cinereous) vulture seen in Macedonia – first observation in the last 10 years

A second or third year black vulture was seen (Friday 30.10.15) at a vulture supplementary feeding station in Vitachevo, together with 28 griffon vultures.

Black vultures became extinct in the Balkans throughout the 20th century, except for one isolated breeding population that remained in Dadia Forest in NE Greece, and that totals about 30 pairs.

Black vulture populations in Spain – their European stronghold – have been increasing (now totals more than 2000 pairs). The reintroduced population in France is also well established and includes now more than 35 pairs, so the number of black vultures seen in Central Europe, notably around the Alps, has been increasing in recent years.

Vitacheco is about 350km from Dadia, as the crow flies. This bird could have originated there, but a western European origin cannot also be dismissed.

The Vulture Conservation Foundation together with a number of partners, including the Bulgarian NGO Green Balkans, are now starting a project to reintroduce black vultures to the Central Balkan mountains in Bulgaria (LIFE+ Vultures Return Back to LIFE). The project is now starting, but first releases of black vultures will only happen in 2018.

This observation is good news, and creates a lot of expectations that in the not so distant future this species could eventually be re-established around the Balkans. With adequate vulture conservation measures taking now place in several countries in the region, and with a coordinated effort to control poisoning – vultures main threat -, we hope that the silhouette of black vultures becomes soon a more familiar sight in the Balkan skyline.

This article was published by the Vulture Conservation Foundation in Oct 2015

WHICH NATURAL RESOURCES SHOULD WE FIGHT TO SAVE? For 35 years, Cave Petrevski has worked in North Macedonia’s Mavrovo National Park, an area protected from development since World War II, including regions zoned to prevent all human activity. After a 2009 law on environmental protection, Petrevski says 12 experts surveyed the park and compiled a report preserving strictly protected areas. But when the government reshaped the zones, Petrevski was alarmed to find somehow they were changed to allow hydropower, even in these strictly protected areas. [HuffPost]

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