On august 20th 2021 five young Egyptian vultures born in captivity were released in the Murgia Materana Park.
On august 15th the animals were collected at the CERM Centro Rapaci Threatened in southern Tuscany, where they were born in the first half of June 2021, and transferred to Basilicata. After a stop at the Wild Animal Recovery Center of Matera, the Egyptian vultures were placed in a nest box installed in the northern part of the Murgia Materana Park, inside an additional feeding station for birds of prey (carnage).
Gabriel, Juanita, Pablo, Lucas and Isabel stayed for three days in the small structure from which they could observe the surroundings. During this period they were constantly monitored even remotely thanks to a video surveillance system. In the previous three years, in the same way, other 14 young Egyptian vultures had been released thanks to four different release operations.
Once the release door was opened, the young vulture went out within a few hours and began exploring the surroundings with short flights, feeding and interacting with the red kites, brown kites and imperial crows who were in the carnage.
The release carried out in 2021 was organized by ISPRA, Biodiversity sas and De Rerum Natura sas with the collaboration of the CERM Association.
The President and Director of the Murgia Materana Park and the Commander of the CITES Carabinieri Group Operations Department, Command for the Protection of Biodiversity and Parks, attended the opening of the nursery.
Various units of the Carabinieri Forestali were constantly engaged on site in order to prevent episodes of disturbance; once the animals have started migration, the CUFAA (Carabinieri Forestry, Environmental and Agri-food Unit Command) will carry on the surveillance of the animals in the migration areas, particularly in western Sicily, to ensure the tranquility of the Egyptian vultures and to avoid poaching episodes.
The movements made by the released young people are followed in real time by the LIFE Egyptian vulture staff both by direct observation and thanks to the signals coming from the GPS / GSM and VHF radios they are equipped with. The monitoring tools were donated by the VCF Vulture Conservation Foundation to the CERM Association.
