{"id":13721,"date":"2020-05-29T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T08:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4vultures.org\/?p=13721"},"modified":"2025-05-05T15:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T12:47:13","slug":"two-captive-bred-bearded-vultures-from-austrian-and-czech-zoos-released-in-baronnies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4vultures.org\/es\/blog\/two-captive-bred-bearded-vultures-from-austrian-and-czech-zoos-released-in-baronnies\/","title":{"rendered":"Two captive-bred Bearded Vultures from Austrian and Czech zoos released in Baronnies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of the released Bearded Vultures (c) Pascal Orabi\/LPO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first 2020 Bearded Vulture releases in France with the LIFE GypConnect<\/a> project took place this Thursday 28 May in the south of Dr\u00f4me! The LIFE GypConnect project aims to establish a breeding population of Bearded Vultures in the Massif Central, as well as in the Pre-Alps, through reintroduction, and promoting dispersal movements between the Alps and the Pyrenean population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This breeding season, a total of 25 Bearded Vulture chicks are alive and healthy within the Vulture Conservation Foundation’s (VCF) Bearded Vulture Captive Breeding Network (EEP)<\/a> that breed the species in captivity for conservation purposes. The VCF and its partners will release at least 21 young Bearded Vultures into the wild across six regions in Spain, France and the Alps to boost the local populations of the species, with the first releases of the season taking place in Andalusia, Spain, on 9 May 2020<\/a>. Some of the birds that hatched will remain in captivity to address the sex-ratio imbalances and also to secure important bloodlines in the captive stock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Releasing the Bearded Vultures <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To create a healthy wild population, it is necessary to release birds from different bloodlines to avoid consanguinity. Consequently, nestlings are transferred through Europe, travelling thousands of kilometres. It took a lot more effort this time to coordinate the releases of these birds. With the COVID-19 crisis, it was even more challenging to acquire the right documents and coordinate the travel for both the birds but also the team members releasing them to the wild. But, hard work and perseverance paid off in the end! One bird travelled all the way from Liberec Zoological Garden zoo<\/a> from Liberec, Check Republic and the other from Sch\u00f6nbrunn Zoo<\/a> in Vienna, Austria. Bearded Vulture Sureau from Sch\u00f6nbrunn is most likely male and Ang\u00e8le from Liberec, is most likely female.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The zoos collected\u00a0blood samples to determine the\u00a0gender of the birds and the genotype to include in the database and be able to recognize them again in the future. At the release site, the VCF and Vautours en Baronnies equipped the birds with GPS transmitters, bleached their feathers and ringed them for monitoring purposes. Following this, the team hiked to the hacking platform to release the birds. We release Bearded vultures using the hacking method, which is more or less the \u201cnatural\u201d way of fledging. The role of the parents at that time is to protect nestlings against predators, supply them with food and provide social contact. So,\u00a0Vautours en Baronnies<\/a>\u00a0will now monitor the birds to ensure their safety and feed them without human contact until they fledge the nest.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n