RESTORATION OF GRIFFON VULTURE (GYPS FULVUS) IN EASTERN BALKAN MOUNTAINS, BULGARIA
ILIYAN STOEV¹, LUCHEZAR BONCHEV², EMILIAN STOYNOV²*, ELENA KMETOVA-BIRO¹,
IVELIN IVANOV¹, LYUBOMIR YANKOV¹, YAVOR ILIEV², ZLATKA NIKOLOVA¹, NADYA VANGELOVA², ATANAS GROZDANOV²
1 - Green Balkans – Stara Zagora – 9 Stara planina str, Stara Zagora 6000, BULGARIA, www.greenbalkans.org, officesz@greenbalkans.org
2 - Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna – 49 Ivan Michaylov str, office 327, P.O. Box 78, 2700 Blagoevgrad, BULGARIA, www.fwff.org , pirin@fwff.org
*Corresponding author: pirin@fwff.org
Keywords: Griffon Vulture, Gyps fulvus, Eastern Balkan Mountains, Bulgaria, Kotlenska Planina, Sinite Kamani Nature Park, reintroduction
Abstract: The current work presents the methodology and results following six year of the re-introduction of Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus) in the Eastern Balkan Mountains of Bulgaria, started in 2009 with pilot release and continued within the Vultures Return in Bulgaria LIFE08 NAT/BG/278 Project.
The practical releases started with 3 Griffon Vultures, released from the Kotel adaptation aviary found in the Kotlenska Planina (Kotel Mountain) in 2007. In the next two years 2008 and 2009 five more birds were released. In the period January 2010 - June 2015, a total of 44 more birds were released. At the same time (2010 – June 2015), a total of 65 Griffon Vultures were released from a nearby adaptation aviary found in the Sinite Kamani Nature Park.
Due to the relatively small distance between the Sinite Kamani Nature Park and the Kotlenska Planina sites, the Griffon Vultures released from the two sites have formed a joint group, regularly visiting both sites, depending on the presence of food and the weather conditions. At October 2015 there was a fixed group of some 25-35 Griffon Vultures constantly present in the areas of release. A minimum of 85 different Griffon Vultures were identified to have visited the feeding sites in 2015, and many non-marked birds also are frequently present. Up to 37 Griffon Vultures have been seen together at the roosting sites near Kotel in October 2015.
First breeding attempt of Griffon Vultures, released within the restoration programme was recorded in 2012 at about 60 km to the East of the release sites. All known breeding attempts from 2013 to 2015 were recorded in the vicinity of Kotel. In the breeding season 2014-2015 there were minimum three territorial pairs of Griffon Vultures in the Eastern Balkan Mountains.