{"id":5768,"date":"2018-09-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4vultures.org\/blog\/portuguese-cinereous-vulture-breeding-success\/"},"modified":"2018-09-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T00:00:00","slug":"portuguese-cinereous-vulture-breeding-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4vultures.org\/pt\/blog\/portuguese-cinereous-vulture-breeding-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy ending for Portuguese cinereous vulture pair that lost chick to fire last year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cinereous
Cinereous vulture chick fledging in the Douro International Natural Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After losing a chick in the fire<\/a> that raged through the Douro International Natural Park, in the North of Portugal, last year, the only pair of cinereous vultures in the region has now seen a chick fledge. A moment of celebration for conservationists, who at one point feared the worst.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Will they come back?<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a huge forest fire burned the nest and killed the chick last year, conservationists were worried: would the pair return to the Douro? Or would they abandon the region and join one of the colonies in Spain?<\/p>\n

To increase the likelihood of the vultures returning to the region, the\u00a0LIFE Rupis<\/a> team appealed to their stomach. The team has several supplementary feeding stations for vultures in the region. These feeding stations are mostly geared towards migratory species such as Egyptian Vultures, so normally the team wouldn\u2019t stock them during winter (when those migrants are not around). But given the cinereous vulture pair\u2019s worrisome situation, the team continued to place food in the nearest feeding stations throughout winter, and they installed two temporary feeding stations close to the area where the pair had nested in previous years.<\/p>\n

Nest in peril<\/strong><\/p>\n

In November, to the team\u2019s delight, the pair returned to its breeding area in the Douro canyon. Their arrival set off the second wave of concern: would they find a place to build a nest? The nest that burnt down last year was already a \u2018spare\u2019 one that the Cinereous Vultures had resorted to after their usual nest was taken over by griffon vultures. There weren\u2019t many options left in this area devastated by fire \u2013 most of the stronger trees had burned down. The LIFE\u00a0Rupis\u00a0team even debated building wooden platforms that the vultures could nest on, but in the meantime the pair made the choice for them, settling on a new nesting site. But the birds\u2019 choice didn\u2019t exactly reassure the team: the vultures decided to nest on a partially-scorched Cade Juniper. This raised the question: could the tree support the weight of the nest, with parents and eventually a juvenile on top?<\/p>\n

Oblivious to the concerns of the humans who kept them under close watch, the pair laid an egg in February. A month later, a chick had hatched. Nevertheless, with storms buffeting the region in February and March, as the chick grew so did the team\u2019s concern that the tree wouldn\u2019t hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n