Berchtesgaden bearded vultures to grow again

Nature conservation - Berchtesgaden bearded vultures to grow again

The bearded vultures in Berchtesgaden National Park are set to grow again this spring. The nature conservation association LBV wants to release two bearded vultures into the wild there again next year - for the fourth time.

It will not be clear until April where the new bearded vultures will come from, "but we have been assured by the breeding program that we will get two young birds again," said LBV bearded vulture expert Toni Wegscheider to the German Press Agency. Bearded vultures are being bred at 42 locations in Europe as part of the European project, including in zoos.

The "newcomers" are to be brought to the same hard-to-release niche as their conspecifics in previous years. There they will be fed and must first learn to fly. This should happen at the end of May or beginning of June, as Ulrich Brendel, deputy director of Berchtesgaden National Park, said. "The prerequisite for this is, of course, a consistently high breeding success in the more than 40 European breeding stations. We are keeping our fingers crossed and the first preparations are already underway."

The first vultures to be released into the wild - Bavaria and Wally - came from Spain in 2021, as did their successors Dagmar and Recka: Dagmar is Bavaria's cousin and Recka is Wally's sister, who was the only animal not to survive. She was killed by a stone. Sisi and Nepomuk - the first male to be released into the wild - arrived from Austria in 2023. "Things are going very well, the birds are developing magnificently. We have no reason to worry," said Wegscheider.

Ideally, according to Brendel, the young birds Sisi and Nepomuk will join other bearded vultures in the coming weeks to make it easier for them to survive the winter in the Alps. "According to the principle: many eyes find more food than just two."

While late winter is the most difficult time for other wild animals because they are already exhausted and find little food, it is easier for scavengers such as bearded vultures. Last but not least, avalanches provide them with food. There is at least one chamois in every third avalanche, Wegscheider explained.

Numerous fans follow the vultures' flights on the Internet. However, this becomes more difficult in winter: when the weather is cloudy and the days are short, the battery power of the GPS transmitters, which are powered by solar cells, decreases.

In 2023, three unknown bearded vultures visited the area around the national park, probably all of them wild birds. "This effect of the reintroduction project is called "social attraction" and was what we had hoped for," said Brendel. "Bearded vultures act like magnets for conspecifics, they attract each other." This makes the reintroduction area interesting for other bearded vultures too.

In 2023, 49 young bearded vultures hatched in the wild in the Alps. "That's a new record," said Brendel. If this trend continues, the reintroduction project in the Alps could be completed in a few years.

Bearded vultures were extinct in Germany for 140 years. They have been reintroduced to Berchtesgaden National Park since 2021. There are also reintroduction projects elsewhere in the Alps. With a wingspan of up to 2.90 meters, the animals are among the largest flying birds in the world.

Berchtesgaden National Park on bearded vultures Bearded vulture reintroduction project LBV Bearded vulture project The flight routes of bearded vultures on the Internet