2 out of 10… or where are the juvenile Egyptian vultures

• Home
• Useful information
• 2 out of 10… or where are the juvenile Egyptian vultures

Out of 10 juveniles that we tagged with satellite transmitters in 2013, only 2 survived. Unfortunately, in early October Ilina was found dead on a small island northwest of Rhodes. Ironically, her brother Ilin was found near his home nest , killed most likely from terrestrial predators . Unhappy destiny has also Ibrahim, whose last signal came to us on the 25 September from the southern part of the island of Crete. Now our last hope is  for Sanie and Paschalis , the two heroes of this year, which currently meet their fate in the ‘heart’ of Africa.
Paschalis is a juvenile Egyptian Vulture that flew over 400 km on September 14, overcoming the Mediterranean. Thus he became the first juvenile Egyptian vulture with transmitter that overflew the sea. His adventure did not end there. Only after 10 days he went to southern Niger, flying over the Sahara, 3 countries and more than 2,500 km - impressive journey for a young vulture. A short visit in Chad followed and a ten-day tour in Nigeria in early November. Currently Paschalis is located in Niger.
The second survived juvenile from 2013 – Sanie, joined Iliaz and Lefkipos, tagged in 2012 and wintering in Chad. they.
From the past year juveniles, we observe with great interest Svetlina,  who after 1 year of 1 life in southwestern Yemen in the last 3 weeks unleash the research spirit and made several long trips, moving away of more than 120 km from the place where you spent last year.
Here's what wrote to us David Stanton, Adviser to the Yemen Minister of Water & Environment and
Executive Director of FEW/FPALY
“Due to the security situation in Yemen, I felt it unlikely that I would ever have the chance to visit Bab al Mandab again.  However, the Foundation for Endangered Wildlife (Yemen) recently implemented a project for World Migratory Bird Day that involved taking a busload of dignitaries from the Yemen Ministry of Agriculture to Bab al Mandab to witness the raptor migration across the straits to Djibouti and I was invited along.  On Friday, October 25th our bus passed straight through the area where Svetlina spends most of her winter between Taiz and Mafraq al Mokha. High-tension transmission lines supported by huge pylons parallel the road at a point about midway between Taiz and Mafraq al Mokha (precisely where Svetlina concentrated last season and this).  Several of these pylons harbored perching EVs with a total number of about 100 individuals.  While we stopped the bus briefly so the dignitaries could understand the importance of what they were seeing, the stop was not long enough to determine why the vultures had concentrated there.  I don't personally have any knowledge of the local industries there, but it seems that there must be a slaughterhouse or other reliable facility that the vultures depend upon for winter forage.  Between 20 and 30 km northeast of this spot is the Taiz Rubbish tip which is an area where Fan-tailed and Brown-necked Ravens, Black Kites, migrating eagles and storks (especially White Storks) concentrate during the migration and winter, but it doesn't appear to be frequented by EVs though individuals may occasionally go there.  Also, the points on Svetlina's map document that she has never been to the tip so it seems that the food source must be more local.  I would love to be able to thoroughly look into the wintering EVs of Taiz, but unfortunately that won't be possible.  Nevertheless, I will see about getting a Yemeni friend with suitable qualifications to do some research.”


Thanks to the satellite telemetry we understood that the juvenile Egyptian vultures from the Balkans spend their youth and ‘write their own story’ spread from Niger to Yemen. You could find more details on the voyages of the young vultures here.