Two young bearded vultures, one born in the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, the other in Helsinki, were last month released into the Parc Naturel Régional du Vercors, as part of the international alpine bearded vulture reintroduction project, in which the Vulture Conservation Foundation plays an important part.
Bearded vultures went extinct in the Alpine chain in the beginning of the 20th century. Towards the end of the same century, it was deemed that the threats that had driven it to extinction (direct persecution, poison and lack of food) had been minimized, so an ambitious reintroduction project started in 1986, using birds from the more than 30 Zoos and captive breeding centers coordinated by the VCF under the Bearded Vulture endangered species programme (EEP).
Since then, the Vulture Conservation Foundation and all its partners in 4 countries (Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France) have released more than 185 birds across the Alps – and as a consequence, there are now more than 20 breeding pairs, and 30 territories, dispersed across the chain.
You can see a film about the release of these two young bearded vultures here
The VCF would like to thank PNR du Vercors for all their work and contribution to this project.
