A small vulture sits on a branch in the aviary in the Prague zoo. Bright feathers glisten slightly in the morning light, and his yellow, almost bare face carefully watches the movement of people behind the fence. It may seem inconspicuous, but the scavenger vulture is one of the most remarkable birds in Europe – and at the same time one of the most endangered.
At the Prague Zoo, the scavenger vulture is one of the real treasures. The local team has been involved in its breeding and return to the wild for years. Bird curator Antonín Vaidl speaks of this predator with respect and admiration.
The scavenger vulture is the only European vulture that undertakes a long migration between two continents every year. “The scavenger vulture is one of the five recognized vulture species in Europe today, and it is the only one that overcomes the longest migration path. It is around four thousand kilometers from Europe to Africa – and migration is the most vulnerable part of its life,” Vaidl explained to Recipe.
During the journey, the birds cross the Mediterranean Sea, the deserts of North Africa and the densely populated areas of the Middle East. And danger lurks in many places. “Unfortunately, it still happens that they are shot in the Mediterranean or in Africa,” Vaidl admitted. “When we put radios on some of the vultures to track their movements, we also found cases where they were shot because people thought they were spies.”
Other times, the reason is simpler – radios may have value in local markets. And sometimes the vulture ends up as food. But danger also lurks where one would not expect it: in poisoned baits intended for beasts, in electrical lines or in lead shots that remain in the bodies of shot animals.
Vulture restaurant
Therefore, today the protection of these birds extends far beyond the borders of individual states. “We cooperate with local ornithological societies and conservation organizations in a number of countries, for example in Syria, Lebanon or Nigeria. The conservation network is now quite large,” describes Vaidl.
In some places, so-called vulture restaurants are being created – safe feeding grounds, where conservationists regularly leave carcasses free of poisons and lead. For vultures, they represent an important source of food in a landscape that has changed significantly over the last decade.
At the same time, the infrastructure is also changing. Electric poles or lines are adjusted so that large birds can land on them safely.
From Prague to the Bulgarian mountains
The Prague Zoo is also heavily involved in the protection of vultures. One of her key projects is the return of birds to nature in the Balkans. “We started launching in Bulgaria in 2015,” Vaidl told Recipe. “We first tried the method of placing the young directly on the nests. But there was a huge mortality during the first migration trip.”
Therefore, the conservationists were looking for another way to solve the situation. And the result is the delayed release method: the young remain in the care of breeders for a year after hatching. They are then placed in an adaptation aviary at the place of future release, where they grow stronger, learn to fly and spend several months getting used to the surrounding landscape.
“They stay in the environment for about half a year and only then naturally move away. Thanks to this, it was possible to increase survival from about thirty to seventy percent,” explains Vaidl.
The Prague Zoo released eleven of its own breeding stock into the wild and helped organize other releases as well. In total, there are already 35 birds from various European zoos.
Birds that remember people
Around fifteen scavenger vultures live in the Prague Zoo today. Some were born right here, others came from the wild, often injured. “We also have birds here that have been shot in the Middle East. We operate on them, remove the pellets and then put them in so-called dating aviaries where they can find a mate,” explains Vaidl. “Thirty-three cubs have already hatched here, which is the largest number in zoos in the world,” concluded the sympathetic curator.
