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From Vienna to Tallinn and back – 20 hours on the road for bearded vulture conservation

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A team from the VCF and EGS (the Austrian NGO managing the Haringsee bearded vulture specialized captive breeding center) has just spent 20 hours on the road to collect a young bearded vulture born in Tallinn Zoo (Estonia), so that it could be adopted by a foster breeding pair in Austria.

The chick hatched on the 23rd March in Estonia, from a pair that includes a founder male, so the chick is 
important to increase the genetic variability inside the EEP. However, some days before hatching the egg was
buried under the wool in the nest and the parents stopped incubating. The egg was then taken to an incubator, hatched artificially an taken care of by the team of Tallinn Zoo for the first days. To avoid imprinting on humans
it was decided that the best course would be to send the chick for adoption to secure its survival and healthy
development.

The nestling endured the gruelling trip in good shape, and was quickly adopted by the foster parents in Austria. The chick was quiet during the long travel and was fed two times during the trip.

Adoption of chicks and transferring of eggs are an important part of the management of the bearded vulture captive breeding network, coordinated by the VCF, for conservation purposes. Bearded vultures bred in captivity are released in our 4 on-going reintroduction (Alps, Massif Central-Grands Causses and Andalusia) and restocking (Corsica) projects.

The VCF would like to thank all the staff from Tallinn Zoo who spent many hours taling care of this chick.

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