Green Balkans increases population of European vultures

Vulture Zivka, born in Eindhoven Zoo, has been flying around Bulgaria for two months now. She is being closely watched by Green Balkans, the organization that introduced her, like her brother Stanislav a year earlier, to this country.

Green Balkans is one of the first public organizations that started working to protect habitats and rare species in Bulgaria. In 1988, the organization was founded by a group of students. In recent years, Green Balkans has received recognition from both national and international institutions and authorities. It is seen as a full cooperation partner, involving hundreds of volunteers and experts. Thanks to these volunteers and experts, Green Balkans has been able to make a positive contribution to nature conservation in Bulgaria in recent years.

Improve population of vultures
One of the projects is to improve the populations of European vultures in Bulgaria. Green Balkans does this primarily by focusing on the reintroduction of the griffon vulture. Eindhoven Zoo has contributed to this by reintroducing two griffon vultures, Zivka and Stanislav, to Bulgaria.

The ultimate goal of this organization is to return healthy populations of monk vultures and bearded vultures to the wild in addition to griffon vultures. Several projects are now underway for the griffon vulture and monk vulture. Because Bearded Vultures need other vultures to open carcasses, it is important for this species that the other two populations have returned sufficiently first. Therefore, this species will be reintroduced at a later date.

Want to know more about the project? Readhere more!

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