A Bearded Vulture baby hatched at the Wildlife Rescue Centre of Green Balkans

Just a couple of days ago, with the help of our colleagues from our VCF a baby Bearded Vulture hatched in the aviaries of the Wildlife Rescue Centre
 
The chick showed first signs of life on March 10th, when a small hole appeared on the egg. By noon the next day, the hole had not gotten bigger, despite the careful help of the father, who gently removed a small piece of the eggshell.
Later that day, having consulted Dr. Allex Llopis of VCF, an expert on Bearded Vultures captive breeding, the team of the Wildlife Rescue Centre assisted the chick to come out of the egg. And it is good we did it, as the chick really needed help, having lost strength after more than 24 hours of efforts to crack the egg open.
 
After we weighted and measured the baby, we left it with its parents. The web-cameras installed in the aviaries allowed us and our colleagues from VCF in Austria and Spain to keep an eye on the vulture family. Despite the fact that the parents were very attentive and gentle and offered plenty of food we could not see a successful feeding. It should be noted that feeding is a difficult task and requires a lot of experience.
 
This is why the next day, after a short fight with the parents, we visited the nest again, weighted the chick once more and decided to move the baby to the incubator room of the Rescue Centre for a few days until it becomes strong enough to return to its parents. This step was mostly due to the low weight and weakness of the baby. This is how for the past two days, the team of the Rescue Centre has been taking care of the baby for 24 hours a day, as it represents the hope for the return of a species gone extinct from Bulgaria. A species, which is a symbol of Bulgarian nature conservation.
 
This is the third chick of the only pair of Bearded Vultures in our country, after two babies born last year by the same pair. We would like to remind you that a year ago, the very first baby Bearded Vulture hatched in Bulgaria for the past 60 years, we called Khan, was raised by his parents and then send to Amneville Zoo, France. Only a single chick survives in nature and this is why the second baby, which would have certainly died in the nest of its parents, was almost immediately shipped to Austria and adopted by a foster parent. As these was the first offspring of our pair, due to their important bloodline, our team and our colleagues of VCF decided to keep the two siblings within the captive breeding programme. As we wrote earlier, this year our pair also laid two eggs, yet unfortunately they threw one of them during the incubation. Unsuccessful incubation does happen in nature as well as in captivity and this is why the birds usually lay two eggs, to make sure that at least a single chick will survive.
 
While hoping that the baby will soon be well, we chose the names of Balkan or Marta, depending on the sex of the bird.
 
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Hristina Klisurova - Wildlife Rescue Centre - hhristova@greenbalkans.org