At the end of July 2021, the LIFE Egyptian vulture project and the future of conservation actions in favor of the Egyptian vulture in Italy were discussed in a meeting. The director of the CERM Centro Rapaci Threatened Association Guido Ceccolini, the manager of the LIFE Egyptian vulture project for ISPRA Alessandro Andreotti, the Director of the Vulture Conservation Foundation José Tavares and Anna Cenerini one of the project management of the LIFE Egyptian vulture attended the meeting.
The meeting took place at CERM, in southern Tuscany, where the Egyptian vulture captive breeding center is located, from which, every year, young individuals are bred and destined to be released.
The VCF, a foundation that is active with many initiatives in favor of the four species of vultures present in Europe, has been collaborating for some time with CERM and with ISPRA and, among other things, VCF supports the monitoring activities of the Egyptian vultures who are released under the LIFE Egyptian vulture project by providing GPS / GSM dataloggers and VHF radio.
The meeting allowed us to hypothesize which synergies can be activated during the LIFE Egyptian vulture project and, afterward, in the post-LIFE period. The common goal is to enhance captive breeding, in order to increase the number of juveniles to be released, and to keep tracking the released animals and the italian population of the species.
Meanwhile, in the short term, the CERM Association and the VCF will agree on the transfer to other European facilities of some of the Egyptian vulture individuals now housed in the Tuscan Center so that they can be integrated into the international European Endangered Program EEP.
The young Egyptian vultures who were born in the structures of this network by the Egyptian vultures coming from CERM will be destined for liberation in Italy. At the same time, starting from spring 2022, young Egyptian vultures born in EEP facilities will be able to be released in Italy as part of the LIFE Egyptian vulture project.
VCF and the CERM Association are also planning a further collaboration that will allow, in the next breeding seasons, the support of the experts of the CERM Association by VCF personnel so that the experience and knowledge acquired in Italy can be transferred to young professionals.
