The only wild population of bearded vultures ( Gypaetus barbatus ) in Europe, an endangered scavenger species, lives in our country , south of the Pyrenees. A group of Spanish researchers have carried out a detailed study that describes the range areas of this bird, whose populations declined sharply in the last century, through satellite monitoring.
According to Pascual López, one of the authors of the research, thanks to this technique they have been able to verify that , from the end of the eighties until today, the population has recovered significantly . For example, in Aragon it has gone from 39 breeding units in 1994 to 86 in 2014.
For decades several researches have tried to find out the extent of the range of the species using various techniques. Above all, they used the marking of individuals with markings on the wings and the monitoring by means of radio signals that allow establishing the position of each specimen by triangulation or radio-tracking ”. These studies had determined that bearded vultures move over large areas of the territory, but the exact extent of their movements and the geographical areas through which they moved were not known.
The satellite monitoring project began in 1999 by the Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture, through which nine specimens of different ages were captured and marked in order to establish the relationship between the supplementary feeding points – the so-called dumplings and the specific feeders established throughout the Pyrenees – and the movements of the birds.
Thanks to this work it has been possible to study with more precision the habitat of the species in our country. The results show that bearded vultures followed by satellite telemetry (non-breeding) do not leave the Pyrenean mountain range during the entire monitoring period . Its range is 11,700 km2 on average, with notable differences between individuals (from just 1,800 km2 to 23,000 km2). These figures are lower than those described in other studies published on the species in South Africa and slightly higher than those described in the Pyrenees and the Alps with less precise conventional techniques.
One of the most interesting data of the work is that all the marked specimens included supplementary feeding points – specific feeders and middens – in their areas of action. According to López, this fact “has special relevance from the point of view of conservation since it shows, once again, that the overlap between the range areas and the sources of predictable food –such as feeders– is essential to increase survival. and therefore reduce the risk of mortality of the species in our country.
This is especially important for inexperienced juveniles and individuals belonging to the non-reproductive fraction of the species ”. The study shows that satellite telemetry is the best available technique to understand the spatial ecology and behavior of scavengers, mainly vultures.
“It is a key investigation for the conservation of this group of species, which were threatened in our country due to the lack of food due to the closing policies of feeders proposed by the European Union, as a result of the appearance of bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease, in the year 2000 ”, concludes López.
