Downy ball with a hooked nose: The picture shows one of the two young bearded vultures from Guadalentin, Spain, which are soon to be released into the wild in the Berchtesgaden National Park.
(Photo: Franziska Lörcher/LBV)
The bearded vulture project in the Berchtesgaden National Park is entering the next round. “Now we have finally been awarded the two young birds that we want to release this early summer,” says biologist and project manager Toni Wegscheider. “It’s two bearded vultures from Spain again.” Like their predecessors Wally and Bavaria, BG1145 and BG1147 – that’s the previous short names of the two animals that are now a good month old – come from the Andalusian breeding center Guadalentin. But that’s not the only thing the four bearded vultures have in common. “One cub is a real sibling of Wally,” says Wegscheider. “The other has the same grandparents as Bavaria.”
Bearded vultures (Gypaetus barbatus) are among the most impressive birds of prey of all. This of course has to do with their size. Adult bearded vultures have a wingspan of almost three meters. When they sail high in the sky, it’s a majestic sight. But even up close they are an extraordinary sight. This is mainly due to its hooked beak and the black feathers that stick out from it like bristles. The bearded vulture got its name from them. As powerful and dangerous as the birds of prey look, they are harmless. They only eat bones and carrion.
Nevertheless, bearded vultures have been fiercely hunted and eventually exterminated throughout the Alps. The reason was the misconception that they kidnapped and killed sheep and even infants through the air. At the beginning of the 20th century, the last bearded vultures in the Alps were shot in Austria and shortly afterwards in the Italian Aosta Valley. Resettlement began in the 1980s. The projects were very successful. There are now 300 bearded vultures living in the Alps again. Now the gap between the population there and that in the Balkans should be closed. That is why the State Association for Bird Protection (LBV) started the resettlement project in the Berchtesgaden National Park last year. Two to three young bearded vultures are to be released there every year within ten years.
The SZ accompanied the campaign with a series about Wally
The two bearded vultures, Wally and Bavaria, started things off. The two were released on June 10, 2021 in a specially prepared rock niche in the Klausbach valley below the Knittelhorn. They were soon a magnet for visitors of a kind that the national park had seldom seen before. Thousands of fans of birds of prey followed the growth of the two – live from an observation post a few hundred meters opposite the rock niche, but also on the Internet. And of course via television and other media. The SZ accompanied the campaign with a series about Wally. At the LBV they were very happy about the huge response. “It was an encouragement that is otherwise known from pop stars,” said LBV boss Norbert Schäffer.
Wally and Bavaria took the hype cool. They have long fledged and made it through the winter well. Bavaria is the more adventurous. In early autumn she went on excursions to the outskirts of Vienna. She has recently returned to the national park region. Wally has remained true to the national park and its immediate surroundings most of the time. There was great excitement when LBV man Wegscheider lost radio contact with the two. The reason was that the tiny solar modules could no longer supply the GPS transmitters on their backs with sufficient energy due to the low position of the sun in winter. With the beginning of spring and the higher position of the sun, the problem solved itself. “We can again follow completely what Wally and Bavaria are doing,” says Wegscheider. “They’re doing really well.”
The Nuremberg Zoo also participates in the European bearded vulture breeding program
BG1145 and BG1147 are also doing very well. You’ve already gained quite a bit. When they hatched in early March, they weighed less than 150 grams and fit into a large hand. Now they each weigh a good kilogram and are as big as a chicken. The Guadalentin Breeding Center they come from is one of about 40 breeding stations and zoos in the European bearded vulture breeding program. The facility is secluded in a vast nature park in Andalusia at an altitude of 1300 meters and was founded 26 years ago – when the reintroduction of bearded vultures in Spain began. BG1145 and BG1147 will remain in Guadalentin until shortly before their release into the wild. By then you will also know their gender. Male and female bearded vultures are so similar in appearance that genetic testing is required to determine their sex. “It won’t be done for a few weeks,” says Wegscheider.
The Nuremberg Zoo also participates in the European bearded vulture breeding program. The female Bearded Vulture there laid two eggs this year – as is usual with birds of prey. The brood started out very promising at first. The employees around the deputy director of the zoo, Jörg Beckmann, were in good spirits that they could make this year’s young vultures available to the LBV and the national park for the reintroduction project. But like in 2021 it didn’t work again. Both young birds died in the eggs before they hatched. Beckmann is comforted by the fact that BG1145 and BG1147 will stop at Nuremberg Zoo in June on the journey from Andalusia to Bavaria. There they will be thoroughly checked again, after which they will be released into the wild.