North Tyrol records seven bearded vulture breeding pairs

North Tyrol now has seven breeding pairs of bearded vultures, a scavenging bird that plays an important role in the ecological cycle, ORF reported. Two additional breeding pairs live in East Tyrol.

Bearded vultures feed exclusively on dead animals and even eat bones. By removing carrion, they help reduce disease outbreaks in the environment. Biologist and ecologist Elisabeth Weninger describes them as the “health police of the skies”.

The species is harmless to people and livestock. “There is really no need to be afraid of the bearded vulture. It does not harm a lamb or a child,” Weninger said.

False beliefs once contributed to the bird’s disappearance from the Alpine region. People believed it stole lambs or even children. The last bearded vulture in the Alpine region was shot in the Aosta Valley in 1913.

Several attempts to reintroduce the species initially failed. In the 1970s, birds were transported from countries including Afghanistan and Russia and released in the Alps. The long journeys left them so weak that the settlement project was abandoned, Weninger said. The first successful release took place in 1986.

Since then, young birds from zoos or breeding centres have been placed in prepared nest niches at between 90 and 100 days old. The same method is still used today.

Bearded vultures breed in midwinter. Around Christmas, the female lays her egg, and the chick hatches after 56 days, just as the snow begins to melt and carcasses and animals killed in avalanches become visible.

The nests are kept strictly secret because the breeding period falls in the depths of winter. If the birds are disturbed, they may abandon the egg. Just 15 minutes can be enough for the egg to become too cold and the chick to die.

The species lives in high alpine terrain and needs rugged rocky ground for its nest, as well as access to water.

Weninger also works for Ötztal Nature Park, where she monitors the birds and collects data. The information is shared with many European countries to track bearded vulture populations.

Volunteers are being sought for the International Bearded Vulture Observation Day, held on the second Saturday of October each year. Participants spread out across high alpine terrain and remain connected with one another. When someone reports a bearded vulture, the time and direction of flight can be compared through the network to determine whether it is the same bird. This helps establish how many individual birds are actually present.