MEET THE TEAM
Who We Are
FRANZISKA LÖRCHER
Scientific and conservation coordinator
Franziska had her first encounter with Bearded Vultures already as a girl when the first three young vultures were released in Switzerland. After an apprenticeship as an optician and several years working she completed high-school and studied biology in Bern and Zurich in Switzerland. For her Masters’ thesis she got back to the Bearded Vultures. She investigated the genetic diversity of the reintroduced Bearded Vulture population in the Alps. She works part-time for the Swiss Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture where she is managing the release of young Bearded Vultures and manages the genetic monitoring of Bearded Vultures from the EEP and the wild. For the VCF she is the scientific and conservation coordinator and works in the different LIFE and MAVA projects for the monitoring, GPS marking and genetic analysis of vultures and coordinates the IBM database. The collaboration of vulture conservationists working together throughout Europe and the world is one of the highlights for her. In her spare time Franziska likes to be outdoors, for hiking, climbing, snowshoe walking, photography and bird and other animal watching.
