Prague Zoo arranged a four-wheel drive vehicle for vulture conservation

29. 08. 2017

In addition to the projects for protecting endangered species organized by Prague Zoo, the best known being the Return of the Wild Horses and the Wandering Bus, it also supports many others. One of these is the protection of vultures in the Balkans, organized by Green Balkans in Bulgaria. In the past few years funds provided by Prague Zoo helped build three breeding and acclimatisation aviaries for vultures as well as a feeding place. As of now, the Bulgarian conservationists of these birds of prey also have a four-wheel drive car. It was possible thanks to Prague Zoo’s cooperation with Komerční banka.

Antonín Vaidl (left), EEP Coordinator for the Egyptian vulture, Manager of the Ivaylo Klisurov Wildlife Centre, and Ivelin Ivanov (right), Green Balkans Director, watch Egyptian vultures in flight. Photo: Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

The Egyptian vulture is the smallest of the four species of vulture that live in Europe, and its decline sets an alarming precedence. It is the most threatened of all vultures, and thanks to these alarming numbers, it has also entered the IUCN Red List in the category of threatened animals. The European population of the Egyptian vulture has fallen to less than half in the last three generations. If we focus on the Balkan population, then it dropped by 70% over the same period and now belongs to the category “critically threatened”.

“One of two migration paths lead over the Balkans, and Bulgaria is home to a third of the local population, which is less than 30 adult couples,” says Antonín Vaidl, Prague Zoo’s bird curator and the coordinator of the EEP Rescue Scheme for the Egyptian vulture, and adds, “The main reasons why vulture numbers are falling in the wild are the decline of original farming methods in livestock production, landscape urbanization, collision with power cables, poisoning and also disturbance by people who spend their free time rock climbing where they nest.”

This dramatic decline in the number of raptors halted in 2013 when a joint project between Green Balkans and Prague Zoo got under way. The aim of this collaboration is to halt the decline of vultures in the wild and to return individuals hatched in captivity into the Balkan mountains. Prague Zoo has financially supported the construction of three breeding and acclimatisation aviaries for vultures as well as the construction of a feeding place. “The feeding site is located on an elevated cliff and provides enough space for the birds to take off and land. It is important for rearing youngsters and serves as the first stop along a long migration path. The vultures always find enough food here,” explains Antonín Vaidl.

The inaccessible terrain in the Stara Planina range, where there is not only a feeding place, but also a nesting site, was the reason for expanding the cooperation.

“An SUV is necessary in such difficult conditions and it truly helps the local nature conservationists not only when supplying the feeding site, but also when monitoring the local vulture population,” says Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo’s director. The Subaru Forester, which Green Balkans has taken over from Prague Zoo, is covered with a sticker of the Egyptian vulture and the partners’ logos.

Prague Zoo has close ties with Egyptian vultures. In the last decade Prague Zoo has bred the most young of these predators in Europe and keeps the European Stud Book and runs the Breeding Programme (EEP), which was established in 2012. Prague Zoo is also a member of the Supervisory Board of the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF), which seeks to protect all four European vulture species. This Foundation, among other things, promotes education in those European countries where the vultures live in order to stop the use of poisoned baits.

The public can support Prague Zoo’s conservation projects by making a donation to the We Help them to Survive account with the number 43-6804660247/0100 or by a donation in the form of a DMS. A one-off DMS is priced at 30, 60 or 90 CZK, the project then receives 29, 59 or 89 CZK. It is also possible to use the standing order option (each month the amount you choose will automatically be sent to the Prague Zoo account), for all the above-mentioned amounts. The form of the SMS message is DMS OHROZENEDRUHY XX (XX = the amount selected) and is sent to the number 87 777. The latest way to make a donation are the payment kiosks located in Prague Zoo.