The Zoo de Lille and the Éspace Rambouillet have kindly organized fundraising events for the VCF in August-September. The Lille Zoo has run an awareness campaign about the birds in the Zoo, and sent the donations collected to two conservation organizations – one local rehabilitation centre and the VCF were the selected targets. The Éspace Rambouillet has organized some information panels about vultures, as part of their participation in the International Vulture Awareness Day (7th September),and also directed the collected donation to the VCF.
These donations will be used for the coordination of the bearded vulture EEP – a network involving more than 30 zoos and animal parks, aiming to breed in captivity this endangered species for reintroduction into the wild. The VCF coordinates this species EEP – most of the birds in this network are actually owned by the VCF. Currently all young bearded vultures resulting from this breeding network are being used in the reintroduction projects in Andalusia (Spain) and Alps – since 1986 more than 190 young bearded vultures, raised ex-situ, have been released in the this mountain chain. As a result, the species, which had gone extinct in the Alps in the beginning of the 20th century, has now recolonised, and is breeding well and increasing its population and range – this is indeed one of the best European conservation success stories of the last few decades!
We thank the Zoo de Lille and the Éspace Rambouillet for their generosity.
