Last year the first clutch in the bearded vulture breeding season among the captive-bred population was laid by a female in Austria’s Richard Faust Specialised Breeding Centre. This year the accolade for the first laying goes to Andalucía’s Guadalentín Specialised Breeding Centre.
Joseph and Keno
Resident at the Guadalentín Specialised Breeding Centre. This pair became the first couple in the captive breeding population to lay the a clutch of the season on December 7 at 11.30 am. The staff at the Breeding Centre will monitor the pair closely during the incubation to couple to ensure maximum reproductive success. However, it will be two months before the staff know if the egg is successful.
Guadalentín Specialised Breeding Centre
Founded in 1996 the Guadalentín Specialised Breeding Centre (Centro de Cría de del Quebrantahuesos de Cazorla) is located at the heart of the Natural Park of the Sierras de Cazorla, one of the bearded vulture reintroduction sites in Andalucía. Since the first couple, Joseph (from Dresden Zoo, Germany) and Zumeta (from Zoo de la Garenne, France) arrived at the centre in 1998 the centre has produced 76 young birds that have been released into the wild across Europe or joined the captive breeding population. Today the centre is home to seven breeding pairs: Cabús and Corba, Elías and Viola, Lázaro and Nava, Joseph and Keno, Andalusia and Salvia, Borosa and Toba and Tranco and Sabina and several other individual birds that have not yet began breeding such as GypHelp or Rin Ran. Managed by the Fundación Gypaetus under the Junta de Andalucía’s Ministry of Environment and Territorial Planning, the Centre is one of the three large specialised breeding centres for bearded vultures that is part of the Bearded Vulture Captive Breeding Network.
The Bearded Vulture Captive Breeding Network
This network of 37 zoos, five specialized breeding centres and two private collections, that are home to the 174 birds which are part of the Bearded Vulture European Endangered Species Programme organised under EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria). This captive breeding programme has been the foundations for the successful reintroduction of the bearded vulture across Europe. Since starting in 1978 we have coordinated this collaboration of different organisations which aims to restore the bearded vulture to its former range across Europe. In 2018 we released 13 captive-bred birds in five different regions (France’s pre-Alps, Spain’s Andalucía and Maestrazgo regions, the Swiss Alps and Austria).
