{"id":669501,"date":"2026-01-02T18:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/669501\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T18:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:22:11","slug":"griffon-vultures-cling-to-recovery-as-conservation-gains-threatened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/669501\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffon vultures cling to recovery as conservation gains threatened"},"content":{"rendered":"

Efforts to save the griffon vulture population in Cyprus have delivered fragile yet tangible results after three years of intensified conservation work, BirdLife Cyprus said in a New Year post.<\/p>\n

Despite once being a familiar sight across the island, vultures declined sharply in the twentieth century due to poisoned baits used against foxes and changes in livestock farming<\/strong> that reduced available carcasses on which they fed.<\/p>\n

By the early 2000s, the griffon vulture population had collapsed to just over ten birds, leaving the population at risk of dying out.<\/p>\n

As a result, BirdLife and state services launched population reinforcement efforts.<\/p>\n

After an initial transfer of birds from Crete in 2014, which was later undermined by mass poisoning incidents, a renewed programme began in earnest under the EU\u2019s Life with Vultures project.<\/p>\n

Between 2022 and 2025, a total of 58 griffon vultures were transferred from Spain, home to the world\u2019s largest population of the species.<\/p>\n

The birds acclimatised in a Limassol enclosure before being gradually released into the wild, fitted with GPS transmitters to allow constant monitoring.<\/p>\n

Today, 38 of those birds remain alive<\/strong>, a survival rate of around 65 per cent.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo: Silvio A Rusmigo<\/p>\n

Taking into account the surviving birds from the original Cypriot population, between 41 and 44 griffon vultures are now flying over the island.<\/p>\n

Losses have nevertheless been significant, with nine deaths from electrocution on power lines, one from a collision with overhead cables, two from poisoning and eight from natural or unexplained causes.<\/p>\n

The vulnerability of the species was underlined by the recent death<\/a> of a griffon vulture electrocuted less than a day after being released, following six weeks of intensive rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

Despite the setbacks, a pair of released birds last year nested in the Paphos forest, marking the first such behaviour in four years.<\/p>\n

Although a resultant egg did not hatch, BirdLife said the attempt was a milestone in the species\u2019 slow recovery.<\/p>\n

Breeding is expected to begin more consistently from 2026<\/strong>, once the birds reach maturity.<\/p>\n

Project partners continue daily monitoring and are calling for the insulation of power lines and stronger enforcement against illegal poisoning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Efforts to save the griffon vulture population in Cyprus have delivered fragile yet tangible results after three years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-669501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115826900584589299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}