In the middle of May two Egyptian vulture eggs were rescued by our colleagues from the Bulgarian society for the protection of birds (BSPB) and were brought to the Green Balkans’ Wildlife rehabilitation and breeding center for artificial incubation.
The rescue mission was undertaken after observation of extremely aggressive behavior of a male bird to a pair in a wild nest. After the attacks continued a few hours, the expert team of the BSPB decided that the risk of breaking the eggs and failure of the season for the pair is too big, they urgently organized extraction of the eggs from the nest. By the means of alpine equipment they reached the nest and the eggs were carefully transported to the Rescue center for artificial incubation.
The eggs were put in an incubator where they hatched and the team of the Center is currently taking care of them. Soon they will be fostered to one of the pairs in the breeding section in order to avoid imprinting which is very likely in this stage of their development.
The young vultures will be raised in the Rescue center for a year and in the spring will be released by the BSPB team in the wild in the area where they were rescued. The release will be made following a special methodology for slow adaptation to the environment and the birds will be strictly observed during this process.
The Egyptian vulture is one of the most endangered species of birds in Bulgaria. As a result of years of dedicated work in the last season we registered significant increase of the population for the first time after 40 years and now the breeding pairs are 35. The survival of each egg and chick is extremely important for the conservation of the species in the country.
The activities for conservation and raising of Egyptian vultures are implemented with the financial support of the International center for birds pf prey ICBP.
