Griffon vulture Stanislav from Eindhoven Zoo released into Bulgarian nature reserve

Eindhoven Zoo's griffon vulture Stanislav was released into a Bulgarian nature reserve on Thursday, June 3. With the reintroduction of the vulture, the Dutch zoo contributes to increasing the population of griffon vultures in Bulgaria.

Stanislav left for Bulgaria on Feb. 8, where he was then allowed a period of habituation in a sanctuary. All conditions are now optimal, so the griffon vulture was reintroduced to Sinite kamani Nature Park on Thursday. He can be followed via atracker.

Beautiful momentOn behalf of Eindhoven Zoo, head zookeeper Stephan Rijnen was involved in the project around Stanislav. "This was really a wonderful moment. As a zoo we are actively committed to species conservation and this is really a fantastic thing. We are enormously proud that we can do our part in this project and of course hope that Stanislav is going to provide even more griffon vultures in the wild," says Rijnen.

Eindhoven Zoo is working with Green Balkans and Stichting Wildlife on the reintroduction of the vulture in Bulgaria. "The release of Stanislav can be seen as the crowning glory of our work. With our contributions, Green Balkans can continue to carry out projects like this to ensure the conservation and increase of the vulture population in Bulgaria. That's fantastic," said Kris Hekhuis of Stichting Wildlife.

Almost extinctIn Bulgaria, several European vulture species, the griffon vulture, the bearded vulture and the monk vulture, are close to extinction. Farmers laid down poisoned carcasses meant to scare away bears and wolves, but which also victimized vultures. As a result, the population declined rapidly since the 1970s.

Green Balkans is committed to stopping the extinction of vultures and increasing their population in the wild. The wildlife organization does this by providing education, addressing factors that cause vultures to die and, where possible, by reintroducing vultures to their natural habitat.

Want to know more about this project? Readhere more!