As we had already announced, on May 17th 2012 staff of the Vultures Return in Bulgaria LIFE08 NAT/BG/278 Project found out the very first nest of Griffon Vultures in the Eastern Balkan Mountains for the past 50 years, thanks to a prototype GPS/GSM transmitter fitted on one of the birds.Despite our initial excitement, at that very moment it was clear that it was a bit late for a young, as vultures lay and hatch earlier than the rest of the birds. In spite of that, we had some hopes, fed by the fact that the pair consists of young and inexperienced birds.
The transmitter not only gave out the location of the nest but also helped us track the behavior of the young parents. Around May 30th the two parents were seen together at the supplementary feeding site of Kotel and since then they have stopped spending time in the area of the nest. It became clear that they have failed to raise a chick this year.
On May 5th a team of Green Balkans visited the nest with alpine equipment to check its condition. Egg shells, which undoubtedly were from a Griffon Vulture egg were found under the nest. Unfortunately there is no way to say if the overall breeding failure is due to an infertile egg, faulty incubation or a chick death. Furthermore, there is a Raven nest nearby and Ravens are well-known “thieves” and nest-robbers.
In addition to that, fresh traces of human activities were found under the nest and the unintentional disturbance may also be among the reasons for the failure of the breeding attempt.
Despite that, failed first attempts are common for even completely wild vultures so our team remains very proud with the first nest of Griffon Vultures in the Balkan Mountains.
We believe that the pair will be more successful next year and we will soon announce the very first chick hatched in the wild!
For more information, please contact:
Elena Kmetova – project coordinator;
e-mail: ekmetova@greenbalkans.org; phone: + 359 885 219 557
