The latest report on the situation of the endangered Egyptian vulture in France has been published by Erick Kobierzycki, one of the two regional coordinators overseeing all the work with this species in the country.
Last year a toal of 88 territorial pairs were counted, in two nucleuses: Pyrenees and south-southeast.
In the French Pyrenees 71 pairs were seen, of which 56 started to breed, and produced 39 fledglings – most pairs are in the western part of the mountain range – Pyrenees Atlantiques, Productivity (number of fledglings/number of pairs) and breeding success (number of fledglings/number of pairs laying eggs) were again lower than the average 1999-2015: 0,55 and 0,70 respectively. Only three pairs have managed to fledge two chicks.
In the smaller nucleus in the southeast of the country there were 17 territorial pairs, of which 15 have laid eggs. Out of these, eight pairs managed to fledge 9 young. The productivity there was 0,53, and the breeding success 0,60, confirming a very bad year overall. This subpopulation is still very fragmented and is now decreasing. 2015 was amongst one of the worst years for breeding results in France.
The first bird was observed on the 3rd March, and the last on the 31st September. The first fledgling to leave the nest was on the 17th July, the last on the 2nd September.
All this data were collected by hundreds of observers – in the Pyrenees alone 140 volunteer observers sent data, having passed more than 2000 hours in the field monitoring Egyptian vultures.
The national species action plan has also been updated (2015-20124) (see http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/PNA_Percnoptere2.pdf )
You can download the report (in French) below.
The Egyptian vulture in France in 2015 (in French) Vautour percnoptère Bilan Suivi 2015.pdf Adobe Acrobat Document 1.4 MB Download
