In 2007 an important seminar was organised to discuss the conflicts and the controversies related with vulture feeding and foraging behaviours, artificial feeding of vultures, and the impact of the new EU sanitary regulations on vultures. Those were times when the new EU laws imposed to deal with the mad cow and the foot and mouth diseases, requiring compulsory removal of all carcasses from the fields, and their incineration, were causing a dramatic change in age-old traditions in Iberia of leaving dead cattle in “muladares”. Things have improved since, with new regulations allowing for carcasses to be left on the ground in some areas and/or in some special conditions, but the papers gathered in this seminar still constitute some of the best science ever on this important topic. The publication – a 500 page volume both in Spanish and English – can now be freely downloaded from here

Des Gypaètes et des Hommes, a film by Mathieu Le Lay about the bearded vultures in the Alps, and the people that brought it back there, will be screened this Saturday (8^th February) at 10.30 am at the Geneva museum, included in a month-long festival of films and documentaries about birds – Le rêve d’Icare – mois du film documentaire, http://www.ville-ge.ch/mhng/anima_2014_02_mois_film.php 

This film, done in close collaboration with the VCF and other partners in the reintroduction project, was first released in 2011, and has already won 5 awards (see at http://www.mathieulelay.com/des-gypaetes-et-des-hommes/).  Des Gypaètes et des Hommes has also been broadcast in many countries worldwide, taking the beauty of the alpine mountains and the remarkable story of one of the greatest wildlife comebacks to many audiences. You can see a trailer of the movie here.

Bearded vultures went extinct in the Alps in 1913, and in 1986, the VCF and a dozen other partners started an ambitious project to reintroduce the species. Today, there are close to 200 bearded vultures flying again in the Alps, including 30 established territories.