Endangered Egyptian vultures successfully rescued thanks to huge effort
Published: Thursday, Dec 7th 2023, 13:51
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The decline of the critically endangered Egyptian vulture has been halted with huge efforts across several continents. This is confirmed by a study in the specialist journal "Animal Conservation". However, this effort must continue in order to preserve the species.
"It's a huge success story," Steffen Oppel from the Sempach Ornithological Institute told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Thursday. At the time, he was still working for the bird conservation organization Bird Life International and played a key role in the study.
"The Egyptian vulture is a very special bird species in many respects," said Oppel. It looks impressive, is culturally significant in many countries and is ecologically important.
The only migratory bird among the vultures, this species is found from southern Europe to Central Asia as well as in Africa and southern Asia. Egyptian vultures are also occasionally spotted in Switzerland. However, the Egyptian vulture population has fallen sharply: In the 1980s, there were still around 600 breeding pairs in Eastern Europe; in 2018 there were only 50, as figures in the study show.
Shooting, electric shocks and poisoning
"The first measures to protect the birds were taken ten years ago. However, this did not halt the decline," explained Oppel. In a large-scale study, bird conservationists therefore looked for the reasons for the sharp decline.
They were able to identify various threats along its migration route. Egyptian vultures are shot in some places and sold in parts of Africa for faith-based purposes such as voodoo, healing or predictions. In the Balkans, poisoned bait is a major threat and many die from electrocution on electricity pylons along large parts of the migration route.
Further efforts required
The project team implemented measures to combat these threats in 14 countries along the migratory route of Egyptian vultures. With success: the annual mortality rate of Egyptian vultures was reduced by 2 percent for adult birds and 9 percent for juveniles, as the study shows. "That may not sound like much, but the significance of this is huge," said Oppel. The number of 50 breeding pairs has thus been maintained since 2018.
However, Oppel emphasized that it was not possible to rest on one's laurels. In order to preserve the Egyptian vultures, these measures must continue to be implemented and supplemented by others.
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