Two more Egyptian vultures, Serhat, an adult, and Memba, a juvenile, have been tagged with satellite tracking devices in Eastern Turkey (see photos). These are in addition to the individuals Kars and Tekelti that had been tagged earlier this summer (see http://www.4vultures.org/2014/06/15/two-more-egyptian-vultures-tagged-in-eastern-turkey-in-a-vcf-supported-project/). Over the past 3 years, 10 Egyptian vultures have been tagged in Eastern Turkey.
In the last two weeks, Serhat (purple in the map below) has already travelled through Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. Meanwhile, Memba (green) has remained in Turkey, flying around Kars, Igdir, and Agri Provinces. The two Egyptian vultures tagged earlier this summer are doing great. Kars (red) primarily resides in Erzurum Province, Turkey, and Tekelti (blue) has been spending his time mainly in the Nakhchivan region of Azerbaijan.
The overall aims of this project are to: 1) determine summer and winter home-ranges, migration routes, breeding territories, and foraging grounds; 2) evaluate habitat preferences and usage; 3) identify geographic bottlenecks; and 4) target conservation actions. The project is a joint effort between the University of Utah, Kuzey Doga, the Ministry of Forestry and Water affairs in Turkey, and the VCF. Additional support comes from the US National Science Foundation and North Star Science and Technology.
