In less than 1 year, the first black vultures will be released in the Els Ports Natural Park. To this end, they have been introduced in one since yesterday acclimatization cage 6 copies who will stay in these facilities for between 8 and 12 months.
Yesterday the first six black vultures that are part of the new project of population strengthening in Catalonia of this endangered species. The birds have been introduced into an acclimatization cage built in the Els Ports Natural Park so that they can be released within a few months in this protected space in the province of Tarragona.
The six black vultures were transferred from the GREFA Wildlife Hospital in Majadahonda (Madrid). They all had been previously rehabilitated from various injuries or pathologies in wildlife sanctuaries, such as the one managed by this conservation association in the Community of Madrid, and also in others in Cantabria and Andalusia (in the future, Extremadura will join this group of autonomous communities donating black vultures). The ultimate goal of the project, in which the organization collaborates with the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Els Ports Natural Park, is to facilitate the biological connection between the colonies of the Iberian black vulture and those in the rest of Europe.
The acclimatization cage in which the six black vultures were introduced was built by the Els Ports Natural Park and with financing from European Next Generation funds, with advice from the NGO, which has been using this type of installation for several years. black vulture reintroduction projects. The birds transferred to Els Ports will stay in this enclosure for eight to twelve months, with the aim of acclimatizing to their new territory and allowing them to socialize with each other and with other specimens of the same species found in the area.
This acclimatization phase increases the chances of the black vultures settling into the release zone once they are released and begin their journey. process of adaptation to wild animals. During the period leading up to release, the black vultures will have no visual contact with humans and will be monitored via cameras and surveillance and control points that are not visible to the animals.
GPS tracking and additional measures
A total of fifty black vultures are expected to be released in the Els Ports nature park in the coming years. Some will be specimens rescued from the natural environment and rehabilitated at wildlife recovery centers, and others will be sourced from the wild captive breeding program with this species that the NGO develops. The aim is to ensure that some of these specimens, when they mature, settle in the liberation zone or return to it after dispersing, as has already happened in the projects developed in France, Spain or Bulgaria.
To facilitate this objective, with the idea of realizing the creation of a breeding colony of black vultures in the Els Ports Natural Park, where the species has been extinct for decades, additional measures are planned or have already been undertaken, such as the creation and maintenance of additional feeding points, the installation of black vulture replicas that act as decoys and the installation of artificial platforms to encourage nesting of pairs that form, as well as actions more focused on dissemination and environmental education aimed at the local population.
When the black vultures are finally released, they will leave equipped with GPS transmittersallowing their constant monitoring and thus obtaining very relevant information on the movements of these birds and the threats they face, in addition to collecting a large amount of useful data to facilitate the fixation of the specimens in the release area.
The NGO has specialized in monitoring endangered fauna through GPS/GSM technology and today there are hundreds of specimens that radiate these characteristics and belong to various endangered species monitored by this NGO. The exchange of this type of information between the different projects and studies focused on the black vulture It will be very useful for the success of the work with this species that has started in Els Ports.
The biological corridor for the black vulture
The black vulture disappeared from Catalonia and much of the European continent between the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The main causes of the disappearance were direct persecution, poisoning, habitat fragmentation and loss of trophic resourcesamong others.
The four European species of vultures –griffon vulture, black vulture, bearded vulture and Egyptian vulture– complement each other in quickly and efficiently eliminating all types of dead animals and limiting the spread of bacterial diseases. Therefore, its function is crucial for ecosystems.
Several reintroduction and population enhancement programs for the black vulture are currently underway, such as those promoted by the NGO in the Demanda Mountains (Burgos and La Rioja) and in the Rhodope Mountains (Bulgaria). In Catalonia, the reintroduction of the black vulture began in 2007 at the initiative of this association in the Pre-Pyrenees of Lleida, with the collaboration of the Generalitat of Catalonia and other organizations and entities. Thanks to this, the Boumort Reserve currently has a breeding colony of almost twenty couplesthat links the species’ populations in the south of France with those of the Iberian Peninsula.
In 2020, an NGO feasibility study concluded that the Els Ports Natural Park, south of the Iberian system, has a perfect habitat to host a breeding population of black vultures. This protected space, included in an area of the Natura 2000 network of the European Union called “Southern Precoastal System”, has 35,050 hectares of very well preserved mountains, with quiet areas and large trees, ideal for the nesting and survival of these spectacular scavenger birds, the black vultures.
In fact, there are regular observations of it individuals of this species in distributionsome of which, marked with GPS transmitters, are known to come from the Boumort Colonies or the Demanda Mountains.
The NGO collaborates with the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Els Ports Nature Park in this population reinforcement project, within the framework of which it is planned to release up to fifty black vultures in this protected natural area in the province of Tarragona in the coming years.