First family of bearded vultures in Bulgaria

The story of our couple begins in 2007, when the wildlife rescue center of Green Balkans-Stara Zagora receives two young vultures, sent by Dr. Hans Frey from Richard Faust Specialized Captive Breeding Center in Haringsee (Austria). Our female has a mixed origin – one fourth Greek (from a population of the species on the island of Crete) and three-fourths Asian, while the male has wholly Asian blood. The European line makes our female very valuable from genetic point of view, and it is extremely important that we succeed to continue her genus. Unfortunately, bearded vultures are very capricious and fastidious with their mates, and on top of it all they reach reproduction age and begin to mate in captivity in their seventh or eighth year. Unfortunately, the first mate of our female died only a month after his arrival from a fungal disease, aspergillosis. This complicated our task further. In the next year, 2008, the team of Richard Faust Center sent us a second male, one year older than our picky female. With the years going by, the male begun to show some interest in his lady. However, she met every attempt at courting with its sharp beak and the miserable male lost some of his plumage.



Last year, after a visit from Alex Llopis from the Vulture Conservation Foundation, the team of the rescue center had a major reconstruction of the cage, in order to improve the conditions for keeping the birds. And here are the results – this year for the first time the female allowed the male a cloacal kiss. In addition, the two birds have been hectically furnishing their nest, although the female often does not agree with her husband furnishing plans. But what can you do… women… 

This is an extraordinary success, which we have been expecting for eight years. We would like to thank heartily all colleagues from EAZA and VCF for their trust, help and support, and in the first place Dr. Hans Frey and Dr. Alex Llopis!

Green Balkans have worked from its very creation to improve the conditions and to assist the return of bearded vultures, and our efforts have been motivated by the great successes achieved in the Alps. There bearded vultures have recovered thanks to reproduction in captivity and coordinated freeing, which has been going on for nearly 20 years. The reproduction is done within the framework of the rare species programme of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, coordinated at the moment by Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF).

We are excited and looking forward towards bearded vulture’s return to Bulgaria!