Rupis – the subadult Egyptian vulture which was captured and tagged in the framework of the project LIFE Rupis in July, is wintering in western Mali – dividing his time between the National Park Boucle du Baoulé. And another location nearby, surely a preferred foraging ground (see map).
Rupis was captured close to Miranda do Douro in the upper Douro canyon, in late July, and then spent the best part of August and September commuting between the Douro canyon and a foraging area west of Salamanca. Then, on 20th September, Rupis started its migration south. He crossed the straits of Gibraltar on the 22nd, and entered the Sahara desert southeast of Ouarzazate on the 24th. Then, for a few days, there was no signal – absolutely normal as there is no GSM coverage in the vast desert. Finally, on the 29th September, Rupis gave signs of LIFE again – his tag was picked up by a GSM mast in Mauritania, and data was transmitted, showing that Rupis crossed into Algeria, and then into Mauritania. He then made it to Mali. Western Mali (see the map) is a major wintering area for Iberian Egyptian vultures.
You can follow Rupis migration here
http://www.4vultures.org/our-work/monitoring/egyptian-vulture-online-maps/
