This February, in a heartening development for wildlife conservation, a new pair of Cinereous Vultures formed in Bulgarian Eastern Rhodope Mountains.
The newly formed pair
4VU, a lone ringed Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) male in his fifth year, has recently found his match.
Unlike other species, Cinereous Vultures are notoriously selective when choosing a mate. First, He established his territory in the Eastern Rhodopes and occupied an artificial nest on its own for quite some time. Now, he has found his mate in a wild mature female that has never been ringed. She likely comes from the Cinereous Vultures colony in Dadia National Park (Greece). Love truly knows no boundaries!
On February 5th, conservationists Dr. Ivaylo Angelov from the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) and Jurabek Tulaev from the Institute of Ecology in Uzbekistan witnessed the two lovebirds courtship behaviour. They also observed the pair copulating on their artificial nest, built thanks to the collaboration between Rewilding Rhodope and Kartsalsko Gnezdo Foundations. With luck, this pair might soon welcome an egg.
Cinereous Vultures in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains
With this latest pair, the number of known Cinereous Vulture couples in the region grows to three. The first one comprises F10, a five-year-old female, and F32, a six-year-old male. The second pair is formed by F12, a five-year-old male, and a non-marked female also presumably from the Dadia colony.
Significantly, the ringed individuals are part of the LIFE project “The Return of the Cinereous Vultures to the Rhodopes”, carried out by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) in collaboration with the Rewilding Rhodopes Foundation. Initiated in 2022, the project aims to restore the presence of Cinereous Vultures in the Bulgarian part of the Eastern Rhodopes.
Currently, 16 Cinereous Vultures roam free in the Rhodopes, a remarkable comeback for a species that had once vanished from these mountains. This spring, The LIFE project “The Return of the Cinereous Vultures to the Rhodopes” will release six more birds. With each new pair that forms, we get closer to a thriving Cinereous Vulture population in the Eastern Rhodopes. These successes are also a reason to celebrate the national and international efforts that conservationists make every day for the survival of this species.
