The vultures Boyan and Ostrava were accomodated in their new home in the wild

The young birds arrived yesterday, as Ostrava was personally provided by the team of Ostrava zoo from the Czech Republic, where it was hatched and raised until now. The vulture Boyan arrived yesterday evening at Sofia airport with flight of Lufthansa from Riga – Latvia. The two birds are donation by the zoos, who also on their behalf covered the expenditures for the transportation of the birds to Bulgaria.

The birds were tagged today, as they were equipped with satellite transmitters, color rings and some of their feathers were bleached. This will help their tracing at any time, as well as their identification in the direct monitoring from distance. The birds were symbolically donated by the zoos to the Ministry of environment and water, which was represented by Mr. Valeri Georgiev, head of “Biodiversity unit” at the National Nature Protection Service Directorate. After that, on his side he handed the birds over to the “Bright future for the Black vulture” project, represented by Elena Stoeva, project coordinator. After the ceremony the birds were accommodated in an artifical nest – the so called hack in the region of Kotel in the Eastern Balkan Mountains. There they will be fed, whithout meeting human presence until they grow enough and flegde. The birds are the first of their species to live freely into the wild after the species went extinct from the country in the 30ies of the previous century. There are many risks to them and their adaptation to the wild is a great challenge. After all we hope that they will quickly adapt and eventually somday they will nest and breed.

The reintroduction methodology has been tested for years in other European countries as France and Spain, where it helped the recovery of the population of the species. Many countries are making every endevour for the reintroduction of the vulture populations, because of the unique ecological service they perform. They are real “sanitizers of the wild”, who thoroughly eliminate the corpses of domestic and wild animals and prevent the spread of contaminations. They also entirely replace the service of the incinerators, saving millions of money to the iconomy and the stock-breeders and also contribute to saving carbon emissions, emitted in the transportation of birds across the country to the incinerators. Follow the fate of the two birds Ostrava and Boyan together with us!

For additional information and contact:
Elena Stoeva, "Bright future for the Black vulture”project LIFE14 NAT/BG/649, Project manager
mobile phone: 0887574699, e-mail: etilova@greenbalkans.org